In 1931, while visiting a sanatorium in Prescott, Arizona, he performed a phrenicectomy on actress
Renée Adorée, who was a patient there at the time being treated for tuberculosis. This involved making an incision at the base of the neck and removing part of the phrenic nerve, which causes the diaphragm to rise. The procedure partially depresses the lung, allowing it to rest in hopes of expediting healing to the lung, a similar goal of the pneumothorax procedure he had developed and successfully treated himself with. However, Adoree died of tuberculosis in Los Angeles in 1933.