The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-26
LIVE HEART IN DEAD BODY.
A New York Newsboy Puzzles tn
Doctors at Hospital.

From the New York Times.
At IL rs o'clock last night it was Just
nine hours and forty-fve minutes since
William Holland, a 16-year-old newsboy,
had drawn natural breath. But in all
that time his heart had not ceased to beat.
The physicians at the Manhattan hos
pital, where the boy apparently died at
l:30 O'Clock yesterday afternoon, are
puzzled and astonished over the case.
So far as the physicians know, there
has never been a case before where the
heart has continued to beat so long after
natural respiration has ceased.
Holland lived with his widowed mother,
Mrs. Virginia Holland, at 5l6 West One
Hundred and F'ifty-ninth street. Friday
night he was out selling papers. as usual,
and got thoroughly wet, but that was
nothing unusual, and he went home, had
his supper, and went to bed feeling as
well as ever. He woke his mother Sat
day morning about o'clock and com
planned of having severe pains in his neck
and in the back of his head. She pro
cured some simple remedies and did what
she could for him, and he tossed rest
lessly the rest of the night, and in the
morning was very feverish.
AS he did not get better during the day,
his mother sent for a physician The
boys condition still remained about the
same until yesterday morning, when he
became suddenly worse, and a call was
sent to the Manhattan hospital for an
ambulance.
DIR. Belknap went with the ambulance
and found the boy quite i'll and seemingl
suffering from pneumonia. However
William declined to lie down in the am
bulance, but sat up and chatted with the
doctor during the journey to the hospi
tai,
They reached the hospital just before1 &c
p. m, and the boy was taken up stairs
and put to bed. Not ten minutes later he
suddenly gasped and APPARENTLY died
The orderly in the room ran to DR.. Bel
KNAPP and announced the sudden death
and the doctor FASTENED to the bedside.
When he arrived, the boy was seem
ingly dead. DR.. Belknap began an eX-
animation and discovered that, although
the boy had apparently died, there was
still feeble pulsation of the heart
RestOratives were applied, and artif-
cial respiration produced by working the
arms just as is done in cases of those who
have been nearly drowned.
The result of these efforts was soon ap-
parent The heart beats grew stronger,
and the color of the face changed from
the hue of death to, one which plainly in.
| dicated that life blood was still flowing in
| the vein and artery.
| But still the body lay inert, and there
was no sign of life save the beating of the
| heart. Not breath could be detected by
the most careful test. Indeed, repeated
trials showed that whatever of life was
| left in the body was in the mysterious
beating of the heart unaccompanied by
natural respiration
When artificial respiration had been
continued some time, it was stopped for a
moment, TO show whether it would be
naturally continued, but at once the face
became black, and the heart throbs died
/ away so fast that artificial respira tion
/ was at once resumed.
! The case showed such remarkable
| features that DIR. Belknap sent for Drs.
| Baruch and Wilkie, the attending physi-
clans of the hospital, and they came
promptly and lent their closest attention
to the case.
They, however, could no more solve the
| mystery of this death in life than could
tie physicians in attendance. Hour was
added to hour and still the heart beat on.
Again and again the experiment of stop
ping the steady working of the arms was
tried, but each time the result was rapid
| relapse and the work was resumed.