Nurses Testify in Edelin Case, Refute Prosecution Testimony

Two defense witnesses testified yesterday at the trial of Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin that there were no clocks in the operating room where Edelin performed a 1973 hysterotomy.

The testimony refuted that of Edelin's former colleague. Dr. Enrique Gimenez-Jimeno, who said last week under cross-examination by William P. Homans Jr. '41 he watched as Edelin started at a clock for three minutes with his hand in the mother's uterus, allowing a fetus to die.

Ellen Curtis, who was then a nurse in the gynecology operating room of Boston City Hospital, said yesterday she recalled that there was no clock in the operating room and that the timer was missing.

Ruth Cox, head nurse in the operating room from June 1973 through March 1974, testified yesterday that the clock was missing from the wall of the operating room "almost the whole time I was there. When I first went there it didn't work, and then it was removed."

Cox said to her knowledge, the clock had not been replaced when she left.

During cross-examination, Newman a Flanagan, assistant district attorney uncovered possible discrepancies between Curtis's testimony yesterday and her statements before a grand jury in February, 1974.

Curtis said the discrepancies were caused by her uncertainty about which operation was in question at the time of the grand jury investigation. Since then, Curtis said, she had referred to hospital records to refresh her memory.

Clear Memory

Curtis tesoned yesterday to a clear memory of a number of details about the operation, including some that corroborated Edelin's testimony and contradicted more of Gimenez-Jimeno's testimony.

Curtis said Edelin did not wait motionless with his hand inside the uterus as Gimenez-Jimeno testified, but instead had trouble removing the fetus and asked for another doctor's opinion.

Curtis also said Gimenez-Jimeno had not observed Edelin from across the table.