The King's anaesthetic

Abstract

King George VI underwent an operation for pneumonectomy in September 1951. Part of the operation anaesthetic record has survived. With conjecture, on a typical scenario of a 55-year-old male undergoing pulmonary resection for carcinoma in the early 1950s and other facts in the public domain, the King's anaesthetic has been reconstructed to give an approximation of the events that in the last few months of his life caused his speech to change from that achieved by his personal voice coach and recently portrayed on celluloid in the film 'The King's Speech'. The popularity and success of the film 'The King's Speech' brought to mind that King George VI died of bronchogenic carcinoma, a result, not recognised at the time, of the cigarette smoking habit that is a prominent feature of the story in celluloid.