Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-09
Mr. Briggs' Wonderful Escape.

LOSsOA
 The case of Mir. Charles Briggs, who is now | at the Massachusetts general hospital, is pro- nounced by physicians to be one of the most remarkable on record. Tw weeks ago last Monday evening, while driving between Wor- cester and Millbury, he vas thrown from his
 carriage, and in his fall his face struck with tremendous force against the curbstone. He lay unconscious unti1 discovered by passer- by, who procured his removal to the Worces- ter hospital. At that place an examination showed that his skull was fractured in two places, his jaw bone in four places, and that
 his nose was broken The very reasonable conclusion was reached that no man with
 such frightful injuries had any chance for life. He was therefore placed, still uucon- scious and unidentified, in as comfortable @ position as possible on the table in the oper- atipg room.
 Here comes in a singuIar incident of this ] remarkable case. Connected with the Worces-
 ter hospital is Dr. McKaye, young physi-
 elan. On that Monday evening he was not on duty, but about 10 o'clock. contrary to
 his usual custom, he passed the hospital, and,
 seeing light in the operating room, entered to learn the cause. To his astonishment he
 found there in the person of MT. Briggs an
 old college friend. He at once did every
 thing in his power to aid the wounded man,
 whose friends in Boston he notified by tele-
 graph. Tuesday morning Dr. Fred. M.
 Briggs, of the Massachusetts general hospi- tai, went to Worcester, and under his direc- tion his brother was brought to Boston in 8
 special car, and taken to the hospital where hs now is Able surgeons of that institution pronounced the injuries the worst they had ever seen in living man, and some of them have since declared that his chance of life did not seem at that time to be better than one in ten thousand. In the meantime MT. Briggs had returned to consciousness, and ever since
 in his waking hours he has been rational and
 et times, such is his spirit, even facetious. 1 Speaking to friend day or two ago, he said: You know there is a Cambridge Glee
 club that comes in here every Sunday night to sing, and the singing does the patients 8 great deal of good. We'll, the first Sunday
 that I was here the club didn't sing in Ward i B, because it was said that there was a man dying in there And, ," he added with a smile, ''I was the man"
 From the Monday of the accident to the Saturday following no attempt was made to repair the injuries beyond doing such things l as were necessary to stop the hemorrhage and enable the patient to breathe. The accident 1 had driven the jaw bone on each side back into the skull, and at first the broken carti lage of the nose was out of reach But nature gradually pushed them back into place. though i in knitting the jaw bone became irree ular in shape, so that after while it had to be broken and reset, dreadful operation for a man in such condition On the Saturday after the accident every thing was done that could be done, and since that time splendid constitution and the very best of care have led to constant improvement, so that now the physicians say that the chances Of recovery
 are four to one, and that unless something
 unforeseen should happen the patient will be
 able to leave the hospital in three weeks. Not
 only that, but in the event of his recovery
 his face will not be seriously disfgured, and
 he will be not at all likely to suffer perma-
 nenily.