BY THE TIME THE INVESTIGATION, TWO DAYS LATER FOUND THAT THE SERUM CAME FROM PHILADELPHIA AND NOT THE KINGSTON LABORATORY, IT WAS TOO LATE... THE MEDIA FROM AROUND THE WORLD HAD NAMED DR. CONNELL'S SERUM A DEADLY KILLER.
...it was later found, through months of investigation, that only one bottle
in only one batch of Rex. #152 from the Franklin Institute was contaminated,
What Happened...
The 1938 Orlando Tragedy
“He sat with his head in his hands at the breakfast table, his cheeks wet with tears. I couldn’t believe that my wonderful father, who, wiped other people’s tears, solved their problems, including mine was crying”
This is an except from the 2006 book Must Not Have Been In Vain: The Lost Cancer Serum by Robert and Katherine Connell Crothers who wrote a chronicle about Katherine’s father Dr. Hendry Connell.
During the last few days of March 1938 ten patients died of lockjaw in the Orlando hospital after having received a contaminated batch of REX (Ensol was produced under the name REX by the subcontracted Franklin Institute in Philadelphia with financial support from the Irenee Dupont family). By the time the investigation, two days later found that the serum came from Philadelphia and not the Kingston laboratory, it was too late... the media from around the world had named Dr. Connell’s serum a deadly killer.
After having shipped more than 125,000 cc’s of Ensol around the world between 1935 and 1938 it was later found, through months of investigation, that only one bottle in only one batch of REX, #152 from the Franklin Institute was contaminated. As a precaution all Ensol, from as far away as Australia, was recalled back to the Kingston lab for testing. After having shipped Ensol around the world and back again no contaminants were ever found.
As a consequence, the Philadelphia lab was shut down and all requests for Ensol were directed to the Kingston Ontario lab. Dr. Connell never regained that incredible
momentum after 1938 but neither did he give up. Irenee Dupont who solidly believed in Dr. Connell’s work did not give up either. Dupont continued to financially support the Hendry Connell Research Foundation through cash and stock options.
To this day no one knows what or how contaminants got into batch #152, it could have been on purpose or could have been by mistake, although, it was suggested by the American Medical Association Journal in April 1938 who was quick to report “that batch 152 was prepared on a Friday, some of it permitted to stand over the weekend and sterilized on the Monday. If the tetanus organism was present in the product it would have had two days in which to develop the
toxin”. The Journal goes on to say that their would have been enough tetanus toxin to cause death.
Dr. T.A. Neal the Orlando doctor who administered the REX serum to three of his Orlando patients wrote a heart felt letter to Dr. Connell apologizing for involving him and his Kingston Ensol laboratory. Dr. Neal goes on to say that “as much as I cherish my own good name, I cherish even more the good name of Ensol, because my time will be short on this earth whereas suffering humanity who need this product will be more and more from day to day.”
Over the next 26 years until Connell’s death in 1964 he struggled to supply his Ensol free of charge for the ever increasing demand of his cancer patients. Slowly but surely, funding from the university and governments dried up and with WWII pending, politicians certainly had other priorities.
Over the years, from the first batch and with each new batch of Ensol serum, Dr. Connell would inject himself with several cc’s to ensure its safety. He carried out this precaution until his death.
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