Jean the Elephant Put to Sleep After Surgery Fails

Jean, the 19-year-old African elephant who underwent the first-ever Cesarean on a pachyderm last month, was put to sleep late Friday after surgeons encountered extensive infection in her abdominal cavity, according to a spokesman for the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

A 20-member team of veterinarians and keepers had begun exploratory surgery Friday afternoon because they suspected that sutures in Jean’s abdominal wall had ruptured and may have pinched off part of her intestine, Tom Hanscom, the park spokesman, said.

Instead, doctors found that her uterus had split irreparably, Hanscom said. Attempts to perform a hysterectomy were unsuccessful because of the size and placement of the organ, Hanscom said, so doctors administered an overdose of the anesthetic.

“The other elephants will certainly sense her loss,” he said.

The 7,000-pound elephant had taken a turn for the worse Wednesday, when doctors discovered that she was suffering from peritonitis, an infection of the abdominal cavity.

Since then, she had not eaten and had exhibited signs that she was in severe pain--drooping, leaning against the bars of her stall and breathing through her mouth. After two days of intensive treatment with antibiotics, Jean still had a large inflammation along her 2-foot-long incision.

Hanscom said that, in anticipation of Jean’s death, doctors performed the surgery near the doors at one end of the elephant barn so her body could be easily removed. Friday night, Jean was moved to the San Diego Zoo, where a complete necropsy will be conducted. Then Jean will be cremated, Hanscom said.

Hanscom said it was the first elephant the park has lost to illness since 1983, when Mandavu, another African elephant died of a bacterial infection.

Jean was 740 days pregnant--70 days overdue--on Nov. 20, when doctors removed a 300-pound dead female calf that had become stuck during preliminary birth contractions.