The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-04-04
A REMARKABLE RECOVERY.
HOW a MAN LIVED THREE YEARS
WITH A HALF-BRoKEN NECK.

- - a [@AAA@@ 1@N1eAA@~N ~ @N@Ne@s
Receiving Injuries Which Resulted in TOtn'
ParnIysis--UnnbIc TO Move Hand or Foot
"a Case Which Puzzled the Doctors.
The Hartford Times gives the de-
tails of the most remarkable recovery
of Mr.. Eddie Crowcll, now in hiI
eighteenth year: In February, 1880,
young Crowell, while practicing on a
trapeze bar in German gymnasium,
lost his hold and went head FIRST, with
tremendous force, to the floor, striking
upon a sawdust stuffed lag. His
youth (he was in his sixteenth year,
probably saved his ! fe. 1t was found
tn 1t the blow had Lroktn the atlas, the
peculiar ringlike bone which articu-
lates with the occipital bone, and thus
sustains the head, and makes practical
bleits free movement. Partially stunned
he arose, with a feeling, as he ex-
pressed it, "as il his head had been
iammed down between his shoulders"
He walked home alone, but soon found
himself unable to move his head with
out moving his body with it. This
state of things continued. 1t was de-
cided, after due consultation with
medical authorities, to let the boy fin
ish his course at the high school, and
he accordingly rejoined his class and
engaged actively in his studies. His
inability to turn or bow his head con-
tinued, and, after awhile, other indica-
tions began gradually to point to the
advisability of removing him from
school. He was at length kept most
in the house, though the torchlight
parades Of the presidential election
drew him out one evening, eager to
march with his companions. This did
not prove to be well for him; he be-
came worse, and soon paralysis ensued.
This speedily became total. He could
not move hand or foot. His parents,
distressed beyond measure, omitted no
possible means of relief. DR.. Jarvis
and other eminent surgeons were con-
suited, but they, after carefully exam
ining the case, could not give much, if
any, hope of the boys living. DR..
expression, that "the hoy's neck was
broken" meaning, of course, that one
of the vertebrB had been dislocated.
The puzzle to the surgeons was, how
the boy could have lived as long as he
had. They had no hope of his sur
viving long. OF course he could not
have lived had the spinal cord been
actually separated. The fracture was
so great, as it was, as to render the
fact of continued life remarkable; but
it is even more remarkable that this
could be, with the "atlas" actually
split or splintered, and piece of it
broken off. The paralysis was at
tributed less to the dislocation of
the Yertebre we have named
with its accompanying bend
ing of the spinal cord) than to
a new growth of bone to make good
the displacement of the piece that was
broken off. The new growth, it is be-
lieved, pressed directly upon the now
somewhat displaced nervous matter Of
the spinal cord, and the more the bone
grew the greater the pressure; hence
the paralysis. The only hope afforded
by the doctors was that life might pos
sibly last until the effort Of nature to
repair the broken bone had ceased, and
that, if this improbable state of things
should fortunately occur, the boy,
being aided by his youth, might then
possibly survive, and recover partially
Cor perhaps even wholly from the
paralysis. (The piece of bone broken
off from the atlas is, we think, sup
posed to be retained by the ligaments,
side by side with the injured vertebr@). }.
The chances being at least one hun
dred to one against any other than a
speedily fatal result, the surgeons were
not little surprised at the fact that
the paralyzed boy continued to live;
and now, after a long period of slowly
increasing power-tirst, the ability to
move little finger; later, the power
to stand, to walk and to ride out. He
now goes out daily to walk or ride, and