Stopping the Hiccups

Atlanta Waitress Lucy McDonald was in De Kalb General Hospital visiting her sister two years ago when she got the hiccups. Except for two short periods, Lucy has hiccuped ever since. She tried home remedies--2,000 of them--from drinking gin to eating peanut butter. More than 100 doctors examined her. She was drugged and she was hypnotized. The hiccups continued--sometimes at a clip of 90 a minute.

Red-haired Lucy lost 40 Ibs. and three jobs. She became so well known that restaurateurs shook their heads: "You're the lady with the hiccups. Sorry, but we can't use you." On relief to feed her three children, and on tranquilizers to get rest, Lucy finally checked into St. Joseph's Infirmary to find out once and for all what was causing her trouble.

Doctors satisfied themselves that Lucy's hiccups were not a symptom of neurosis. Uremic poisoning, hiatus hernia and tumor irritation--all possible sources of chronic hiccups--were dismissed after examination. Next the diagnosticians studied Lucy's phrenic nerves, which control the spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm--in effect, the hiccup mechanism. X rays appeared to indicate irritability of the right phrenic nerve. Stopping that nerve from functioning seemed the only thing that might help.

Last week Lucy was wheeled into an operating room, given an injection of Novocain in the neck, then a second injection to deaden the phrenic nerve. Surgeons watched as the Novocain took effect and Lucy's hiccups suddenly stopped. Reasonably sure that they had found the source of the trouble, they proceeded to the next step: "crushing" the nerve with a clamp. Lucy's hiccuping diaphragm remained at rest.

There is a possibility that hiccups may return when the nerve regenerates eight to twelve months from now. If that happens, the surgeons may move in and sever the nerve completely. "The part of the diaphragm that the nerve controls will then no longer function," explained one of Lucy's doctors. "But you lose only 25% of your breathing capacity when you lose one phrenic nerve--which is nothing to the average person." Lucy agrees with enthusiasm. "Not one hiccup," she exulted. "I've even been trying to hiccup, but I can't."

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