The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1889-01-11
HAD SEVEN TONGUES
A Beautiful Boston Girl AT
hicted With Seven
Tongues.

She Almost starves t. Death, But
Is Relieved by a Surgical
Operation.
Prominent medical men here are much
interested in the remarkable surgical case
Helen Winthrop. says a New York
dispatch to the Cincinnati Enquirer. She
IS a patient at the present time in the
Lexington avenue private hospital. Miss
Winthrop belongs to an oldNew England
family. She is wealthy. Her place in
thes social world is in the upper strata of
society, where only the blue blood of
aristocratic Beacon street has position,
and where money is lighter than birth
and breeding. Miss Winthrop has been
debarred, however, from mingling in this
social sphere because of a most peculiar
physical deformity. Miss Winthrop was
born with seven tongues. One of them
was in the normal position, width three
smaller ones attached to each side.
If Miss Winthrop simp,y had seven
tongues she might have got along all
right and managed them with becoming
modesty. But there were other serious
complications. The tongues filled the
entire mouth and were hard and practic-
ally immoyable. There was !. totol ahsono.
"ooonoo
.ial oon'fac'ioh IN all inc tissues
IN the nelghborhood of the tongue, and
she was unable TO swallow. She nearly
died from o,orvo,;o, h,. 49,,
D'ioio 'Ao aohorhl"l
oonoi.ioi' "as u~lscoVere
1t was a difficult case to handle, as the
position of the tongue in the mouth pre-
vented the introduction of a tube through
~ anu ~ was only after repeated trials
- a iunper ,upe was passed through
ene lose into tne esophasus. The tube
so.eu upon tne slpnoh principle, and the
.oou Mas measured ana given through II
a. a. tesuiai ln.erVais. Only mix was used
osa nis.: anu as q Daoe sne thrlVcd upon 1t
t nnu saineu strehg.h. A1ler every meal
w w; .uoe was removed and washed. Mics
M.niop grew up beautiful IN face and
nsn.e, anu si' ~ now 10 years Old.
~ nui.hs these years she has been fed en-
'Ae.y .hioush eupe.
Having an abundance of wealth, she
has, OF course, had every comfort, and
has not been compelled 10 intrude her
deformity except where it suited her.
a well known chemist. and consists nrin.
cipally of meat and vegetable powders.
used either in milk or water. A number
of surgeons at different periods have ex.
amined her tongue, with a view of cor.
recting the difficulties by surgical inter
terence, but none of them seemed will.
ing to undertake the task, and the proba.
bility is that she would have lived to the
end of her days without aid from the
surgeons If there had not been a change
in her condition.
About a wear apo tho tonr,,e ;,croosod
in size without any known eansa 90 .bat
the end of It Drotr,ded from h"r n,,,th
There wna n s;miIor danoIaamnnt y,
the base. md the result was thnt tha t,,ha
was interferred with in the road tn .bo
stomach. n # moi infrnouentlv hannonad
that the end of il got into tha trnnhna
even without Misc W;nthrnn,s tnn-n
ledge and a portion of the food got INTO
the lungs. settinr nm n terrible co''ohino
and intiammatiop The throat oIs5 ha'
came so sensitive thai If would not ,,lor-
ate the tube. and when +, wos nasoed n
nausea and vomiting followed Rromidns
and local applications had M effact in
reducing the mcmbranous irritabiIitv and
| she was brought to this ciiv tn Tho hns.
pital.
DR.. Selnow took charge of the natien,
and decided TO try 10 pive relief hv on
operation. After the natient was an.
msthetized an i~ncis;on was mndo in Inc
neck several inches lonp nlon@ Tho ,rnar
line of the sterno MUSCLE on tha III
side. The tissue was carefully divided
and the cartoid artery was heIa ont Of
the way by a hook. 1t was consiaerahIv
out of position. az was also The tvro;11
artery.
The latter artery was nunctnrod uh;,e
the surgeon was hunting for IL anI ,i,o
patient had a close call from de,th whiie
on the table.
The recurrent nerve was olso l,car.ted
accidentally. it being ont of nlace Ate
the artery had been tied, tho ;ncision rs.s
extended to the nsopharus.
The surgeon was s,,rnrised To find Tho,
there were seven distinct nassagns 70 tIe
stomach which united in one canal hollow
the level of the collar homo
He selected the larpest msonhs p,s and
made an opening into # ahnnf Three
quarters of an inch lone. Tho blnod woe
carefully washed away ard an ;yorn
curved tube was put into the rsonhaems
The wound was closed around Il md b
patient neck bandaeed. Thcend nf the
ivory tube projected from The nent oho,,
two inches. The patient came ont of tho
ether in good shane and solid food WAY
forced through the tube with n nrohan9
consisting of an ivory hall a,tached 10 s
strip of whalebone.
The patient pulled through aftcr a hare
struggle, making the tirsf instance in
which ~pspharotomv was s,,ccassf,,,in
performed. The patients have invariahlyy
died soon after this operation and in III
case death would certainly have resnlted
except for antiseptics.
The ivory tube was kent in n,acc au
the time, exccpt when taken ont tn wosh
it. and the patient was fed both solid and
LIQUID food thronph If wi,hnnt an"