Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

=== Final tour and death in New York===
[[File:Dylan Thomas's grave geograph-2755360-by-Gordon-Griffiths.jpg|thumb|upright|Thomas's grave at [[Laugharne#St Martin's Church|St Martin's Church, Laugharne]]|alt= A simple white cross engraved with a memorial message to Thomas stands in a grave yard]]
{{Quote box |width=380px |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
|quote =<poem>
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
</poem>
|source =From "[[And death shall have no dominion]]"<br>''Twenty-five Poems'' (1936)}}

Thomas left Laugharne on 9 October 1953 on the first leg of his fourth trip to America. He called on his mother, Florence, to say goodbye: "He always felt that he had to get out from this country because of his chest being so bad."{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=46}} Thomas had suffered from chest problems for most of his life, though they began in earnest soon after he moved in May 1949 to the Boat House at Laugharne – the "bronchial heronry", as he called it.<ref>Letter to Oscar Williams, 8 October 1952, in {{harvp|Ferris|1985}}.</ref> Within weeks of moving in, he visited a local doctor, who prescribed medicine for both his chest and throat.<ref name="Fatal Neglect">{{harvp|Thomas|2008|pp=17–19}}.</ref>

While waiting in London before his flight, Thomas stayed with the comedian [[Harry Locke]] and worked on ''Under Milk Wood''. Locke noted that Thomas was having trouble with his chest, "terrible" coughing fits that made him go purple in the face.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=46}} He was also using an inhaler to help his breathing. There were reports, too, that Thomas was also having blackouts. His visit to the BBC producer [[Philip Burton (theatre director)|Philip Burton]], a few days before he left for New York, was interrupted by a blackout. On his last night in London, he had another in the company of his fellow poet Louis MacNeice.<ref>Both the Burton and MacNeice blackouts are reported by Burton in {{harvp|Thomas|2004|pp=237–238}}.</ref>

Thomas arrived in New York on 20 October 1953 to undertake further performances of ''Under Milk Wood'', organised by John Brinnin, his American agent and Director of the Poetry Centre. Brinnin did not travel to New York but remained in [[Boston]] to write.<ref name="Fatal Neglect"/> He handed responsibility to his assistant, Liz Reitell. She met Thomas at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|Idlewild Airport]] and was shocked at his appearance. He looked pale, delicate and shaky, not his usual robust self: "He was very ill when he got here."{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=57}} After being taken by Reitell to check in at the [[Hotel Chelsea|Chelsea Hotel]], Thomas took the first rehearsal of ''Under Milk Wood''. They then went to the [[White Horse Tavern (New York City)|White Horse Tavern]] in Greenwich Village, before returning to the Chelsea Hotel.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=58}}

The next day, Reitell invited him to her apartment, but he declined. They went sightseeing, but Thomas felt unwell and retired to his bed for the rest of the afternoon. Reitell gave him half a [[Grain (unit)|grain]] (32.4 milligrams) of [[phenobarbitone]] to help him sleep and spent the night at the hotel with him. Two days later, on 23 October, at the third rehearsal, Thomas said he was too ill to take part, but he struggled on, shivering and burning with fever, before collapsing on the stage.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=58}}

The following day, 24 October, Reitell took Thomas to see her doctor, Milton Feltenstein, who administered cortisone injections and Thomas made it through the first performance that evening, but collapsed immediately afterwards.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=56}} "This circus out there," he told a friend who had come back-stage, "has taken the life out of me for now."{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=60}} Reitell later said that Feltenstein was "rather a wild doctor who thought injections would cure anything."{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|pp=336–337}}

[[File:White Horse Tavern NYWTS.jpg|thumb|The [[White Horse Tavern (New York City)|White Horse Tavern]] in New York City, where Thomas was drinking shortly before his death|alt= On the corner of a block is a building with large glass fronts on both sides; a sign displaying the tavern's name shines brightly above in red neon.]]

At the next performance on 25 October, his fellow actors realised that Thomas was very ill: "He was desperately ill…we didn't think that he would be able to do the last performance because he was so ill…Dylan literally couldn't speak he was so ill…still my greatest memory of it is that he had no voice."{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|pp=60–61}}

On the evening of 27 October, Thomas attended his 39th birthday party but felt unwell and returned to his hotel after an hour.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=332}} The next day, he took part in ''Poetry and the Film'', a recorded symposium at [[Cinema 16]].

A turning point came on 2 November. [[Smog|Air pollution]] in New York had risen significantly and exacerbated chest illnesses such as Thomas had. By the end of the month, over 200 New Yorkers had died from the smog.{{sfnmp|1a1=Greenburg|1y=1962|2a1=Thomas|2y=2008|2p=57}}
On 3&nbsp;November, Thomas spent most of the day in his room, entertaining various friends.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=73}} He went out in the evening to keep two drink appointments. After returning to the hotel, he went out again for a drink at 2&nbsp;am. After drinking at the White Horse, Thomas returned to the Hotel Chelsea, declaring, "I've had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that's the record!"{{sfnp|Brinnin|1955|p=274}} The barman and the owner of the pub who served him later commented that Thomas could not have drunk more than half that amount.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3609199/Generosity-was-repaid-with-mockery-and-insults.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3609199/Generosity-was-repaid-with-mockery-and-insults.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |date= 28 December 2003|title= Generosity was repaid with mockery and insults |newspaper= Daily Telegraph|access-date= 15 July 2012|first1= Lewis|last1= Jones}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Thomas had an appointment at a [[Soft-shell clam#Cooking|clam]] house in [[New Jersey]] with [[Ruthven Todd]] on 4 November.<ref name="Todd-1953">{{cite web|url= http://www2.swansea.gov.uk/_info/DTCollectionNet/DTViewInterpretation.aspx?ID=205|title= Letter from Ruthven Todd to poet and broadcaster Louis MacNeice|date= 23 November 1953|first1= Ruthven|last1= Todd|access-date= 31 July 2012|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141029034513/http://www2.swansea.gov.uk/_info/DTCollectionNet/DTViewInterpretation.aspx?ID=205|archive-date= 29 October 2014|df= dmy-all}}</ref> When Todd telephoned the Chelsea that morning, Thomas said he was feeling ill and postponed the engagement. Todd thought he sounded "terrible". The poet, [[Harvey Breit]], was another to phone that morning. He thought that Thomas sounded "bad". Thomas's voice, recalled Breit, was "low and hoarse". He had wanted to say: "You sound as though from the tomb", but instead he told Thomas that he sounded like [[Louis Armstrong]].{{sfnp|Thomas |2008|p=77}}

Later, Thomas went drinking with Reitell at the White Horse and, feeling sick again, returned to the hotel.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=336}} Feltenstein came to see him three times that day, administering the cortisone secretant [[ACTH]] by injection (a [[Tropic hormone|tropic]] [[Peptide|peptide hormone]] produced and secreted by the [[anterior pituitary gland]])<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Morton IK, Hall JM |title=Concise Dictionary of Pharmacological Agents: Properties and Synonyms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tsjrCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA84|date=December 6, 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-011-4439-1|pages=84–}}</ref> and, on his third visit, half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of [[morphine sulphate]]. This amount was three times more than was medically appropriate and was, by affecting Thomas's breathing and consequently the oxygen supply to his brain, the precipitating cause of his death.<ref>{{cite book | last =Davies|first =Walford|author-link =|date = 2014| title = Dylan Thomas|series = Writers of Wales| location = Cardiff| publisher = University of Wales Press|page=161}}</ref> After Reitell became increasingly concerned and telephoned Feltenstein for advice he suggested she get male assistance, so she called upon the painter Jack Heliker, who arrived before 11&nbsp;pm.<ref name="Todd-1953"/> At midnight on 5 November, Thomas's breathing became more difficult and his face turned blue.<ref name="Todd-1953"/> Reitell phoned Feltenstein who arrived at the hotel at about 1&nbsp;am, and called for an ambulance.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=338}}<ref group="nb">Ruthven Todd states in his letter dated 23 November that the police were called, who then called the ambulance, while Ferris in his 1989 biography writes that Feltenstein was summoned again and called the ambulance. D. N. Thomas concurs that Feltenstein eventually returned at 1&nbsp;am and summoned the ambulance.</ref> It then took another hour for the ambulance to arrive at St. Vincent's, even though it was only a few blocks from the Chelsea.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=82}}

Thomas was admitted to the emergency ward at [[St. Vincent's Hospital (Manhattan)|St Vincent's Hospital]] at 1:58&nbsp;am.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|p=157}} He was comatose, and his medical notes state that "the impression upon admission was acute [[Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome|alcoholic encephalopathy]] damage to the brain by alcohol, for which the patient was treated without response".<ref Name="BBC">{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/dylan-thomas/pages/death.shtml |title= Dylan Thomas: Death of a Poet |publisher= BBC Wales |date= 6 November 2008|access-date= 15 July 2012}}</ref> Feltenstein then took control of Thomas's care, even though he did not have admitting rights at St. Vincent's.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|loc=ch. 5}} The hospital's senior brain specialist, C.G. Gutierrez-Mahoney, was not called to examine Thomas until the afternoon of 6 November, some 36 hours after Thomas's admission.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|pp=81–90, 111–112}}

Caitlin, having flown from Britain, arrived at the hospital the following morning, by which time a [[tracheotomy]] had been performed. Her first words are reported to have been, "Is the bloody man dead yet?"<ref Name="BBC"/> Permitted to see Thomas for a short time, she returned, drunk, in the afternoon and made threats to John Brinnin. Feltenstein had her put into a [[straitjacket]] and committed to the [[River Crest Sanitarium]].{{sfnp|Thomas|2008|pp=97–99}}

It is now believed that Thomas had been suffering from [[bronchitis]], [[pneumonia]], [[emphysema]] and [[asthma]] before his admission to St Vincent's. In their 2004 paper, ''Death by Neglect'', D. N. Thomas and former [[General practitioner|GP Principal]] Simon Barton disclose that Thomas was found to have pneumonia when he was admitted to hospital in a coma. Doctors took three hours to restore his breathing, using artificial respiration and oxygen. Summarising their findings, they conclude: "The medical notes indicate that, on admission, Dylan's bronchial disease was found to be very extensive, affecting upper, mid and lower lung fields, both left and right."{{sfnp|Thomas|2004|pp=252–284}} The forensic pathologist, [[Bernard Knight]], who examined the post-mortem report, concurs: "death was clearly due to a severe lung infection with extensive advanced bronchopneumonia...the severity of the chest infection, with greyish consolidated areas of well-established pneumonia, suggests that it had started before admission to hospital."<ref>{{harvp|Thomas|2008|p=107}}. See also {{harvp|Thomas|Barton|2004}}.</ref>

Thomas died at noon on 9&nbsp;November, having never recovered from his coma.<ref Name="BBC"/><ref Name="Ezard-2004"/> A nurse, and the poet [[John Berryman]], were present with him at the time of death.<ref>The presence of both the nurse and Berryman are mentioned in {{harvp|Brinnin|1955|p=245}}, and in {{harvp|Nashold|Tremlett|1997|p=177}}, who also provide the nurse's name.</ref>