Medicine: Prenatal Influence?

Mrs. Pauline Stemmer, 45-year-old housewife of North Brunswick Township, N. J., felt sick and dizzy. She went to see Dr. William Klein, well-known radiologist of New Brunswick. He found a walnut-sized tumor in her uterus, advised her to have it removed by Xray. She went to St. Peter’s General Hospital, of which Dr. Klein was president, and had three irradiations.

Mrs. Stemmer, a faithful Catholic who had borne five children, believed that her child-bearing days were over: her youngest was 17, she herself was nearing 50. Three and a half months after her first visit, Dr. Klein discovered that in addition to suffering from a tumor, his patient was several months pregnant. A month later, Mrs. Stemmer gave birth to a premature (three months) baby boy, weighing a little over a pound. The child was a hopeless idiot, deaf and blind.

In 1937, two years after the child was born, the Stemmers sued Dr. Klein for $165,000, later upped it to $400,000. The case came up in a New Jersey Circuit Court. It was because of Dr. Klein’s treatments, Mrs. Stemmer claimed, that little Jacob is a pinheaded idiot who, at the age of 5½, weighs 22 lb., cannot even sit up. At the lurid trial, two medical experts and a psychologist testified that the X-ray treatments were responsible for the child’s idiocy; nine other doctors claimed they were not.

The suit was brought in the names of Mrs. Stemmer and her husband, and also of little Jacob. Last week a jury awarded $15,000 to the parents for the care of the idiot boy, $35,000 to the child “for loss of Its future earning powers.” The Stemmers’ lawyer allowed a press agent to take publicity pictures of the delighted couple and their grinning son Jacob. The agent then peddled them around to magazines.

The Stemmer case is the first of its kind :ver tried in the U. S. Dr. Klein is going to appeal. Many are the implications of .he principle that a child can sue for injuries suffered while in the womb. For instance: a child might be able to sue his mother for negligence while pregnant.