The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-03
HAD BEEN BOILED ALIVE.
No EYES. EARS. HANDS NOR SCALP,
YET MRS. BALDWIN GOES
INTO SOCIETY.
Patched ana Remade by surgery-A
Most Extraordinary Physical
Transformation After BEING Man
gied in "A Train Wreck.

This is the story Of the miracle of
medical science ana human endurance by
which a young woman who was boiled
alive, who lost both eyes, eyelds, scalp
and hands, and has suffered more than
the agonies Of death. has been restored to
comparative health and good looks.
The young woman is Mrs. Gertrude
Baldwin OF Yonkers. She was horribly
injured and mutilated in the memorable
railroad collision at Hastings, \. Y, on
Christmas eve, 1891. No human being
has ever before been so horribly mutt
lated and lived. Fifty thousand dollars.
the largest sum ever paid by an Ameri
can railroad company for injuries to
single person, was paid to her in settle
ment for her injuries by the New York
Central railroad.
At the time of the collision Mrs. Bald
win was % years old. a graceful and
lovely woman, blue-eyed and auburn-hair-
ed, and the bride of a year. The accident
wrought a terrible transformation. She
was crushed by heavy timbers and scalded
by steam from the engine. The skin and
flesh Of the head was boiled OF; over the
parietal bones there was a place about
the size of the hand entirely barred to
the white skull, where the unfortunate
woman had been literally scalped; the eye
Hqs We're boiled OF, and so was the skin
or her face down to the nose; her carttl-
aginOus parts of both ears were gone, only
small Stumps remaining on either side
of her mutilated head; the flesh of her
neck and left shoulder blade was boiled
of, and the left shoulder blade protruded;
she mad fallen at the time of the collision
with her arms over her head, and the
arms were boiled entirely from the fore
arms to the points of the fingers; it was
necessary that both eyes should be re-
moved, and that the left hand should be
right hand.
Yet to-day this woman is a presentable
person, with Yestiges of her former beauty.
She lives the life of the ordinary woman
OF wealth.; she attends social gatherings
and receptions and entertainS in her
pretty home on Highland avenue. She
wears diamonds and dresses handsomely.
a curly brown wig covers the scalpless
head, and the places where the ears were;
blue glasses hide the eye cavities; cos
metics make her face slightly where the
skin crafts have grown. Her pretty mouth
and chin are uninjured. On the thumb,
which is all that remains of her right
hand, she wears a fine solitaire ring, and
the stump of her left arm is hidden be-
meath the lace of her sleeve. She goes to
church. She is often out driving on pleas
ant days She has once been to New
York since her accident on a several days
visit.
Mrs. Baldwin was one Of a family party
consisting of her husband, Homer r.
Baldwin, his mother and his sister Lillian,
took passage from New York Christmas
Eve, 1891, on the Wagner car Gibraltar,
the last coach on the Niagara express.
They were bound TO Niagara Falls to
spend the holidays. The train came to
sudden stop at Hastings, and through the
blunder of a brakeman of the Niagara
signal in the rear after the train stopped,
and the Cincinnati and st. Louis express
crashed into the Gibraltar at full speed.
Mr.. Baldwin had gone into the smoker
n Hnh q
Mr.. Policy was the first taken out; he
died the next day. Mrs. Baldwin's mother
was next rescued, but she Immediately
died. Miss Baldwin, when taken out,
walked across the railroad track and
dropped dead. Mrs. Baldwin had been
thrown on her back at the first shock and
heavy timbers lay across her chest She
was nearest to the engine, and as the
steam ate its way into her flesh, she strug-
gled wildly to free herself, not for mo-
ment losing consciousness until her hus-
band had chopped away the timbers that
pinioned her and dragged her out in his
arms. Then she tainted.
She was Immediately taken to St. Johns
hospital, Yonkers. When her wounds
ere first dressed the scalp and all that
tors hands; the ears and the flesh from
her hands dropped off when touched
Great pieces of skin peeled from the inside
of her mouth and throat.
The hospital surgeons believed that
death would end her agony during the
night hours But in the morning they found
enduring with vitality and spirit that
scarcely seemed possible in so frail a
woman.
Then began the fight of science for her
life. For days her life hung by a feeble
thread. But the patience OF science was
infinite.
cotton; she lay upon bags Of ice; she
was given hypodermic injections con-
stantly to keep up the action of the heart
and to allay the intense pain; her wounds
We're dressed every few hours in antisep-
tic dressing fluid, and she was bathed in
the dressing fluid.
| skin began to slough OFF until the upper
layer was gone, leaving the surface raw
and bleeding; putrefaction and SO, on Jan.
l, the operation was performed without
| them, Mrs. Baldwin bearing the pain calm
| ly and conscious that 1t was but one OF a
series of torturing ordeals which she
| would be compelled to undergo.
| Her left hand was amputated just above
the wrist in the hope of saving as much
| of her arm as possible; she knew that a
! second amputation would probably be nee
essary
The injuries to her head gave her great
agony; the surgeons feared that the inner
| plate of the skull might have been in
| jured and that the gathering pus, in that
| event, would cause conensued, and she
suffered severely from the shock and pain.
1t was found necessary to amputate her
| left hand when all the flesh had sloughed
from the fingers, leaving the bones bare.
The use of anaesthetics would have been
| dangerous in her feeble condition gesta-
ton, which would have been fatal. The
| skull was white and chalky were expos
ed. The mental shock of the night of hor-
ror combined with her physhical agony
We're finally too much for her wonder
| full nerve. and for a time her brain was
seriously affected; she had hallucina-
tons and there was probability of per-
| manent insanity.
Within few weeks she has wasted from
| lis pounds in weight to 60. AT one time
| her pulse had fallen from $50 to 80 and
| her respiration to II, and the doctors be-
lieved her dying, but she rallied. There
| had never been such marvellous vitality
| in a woman, the doctors said.
AS soon as her condition made it pos
| sible, she was removed from the hospital
| to the Getty house in Yonkers. DR.. Emil
! Schopen, who had been chief in attend
| ance on her in the hospital, took the en-
| tire charge of her. He gave up a large
| share of his practice to devote his time
| to her 1t was not a case for the brilliant
! coup d'etat of a surgical general. 1t was
a case for the patience and eternal vigil
| lance of science.
Then began the series of skin-graftings
| which have made Mrs. Baldwin again a
| presentable person. From over the eyes
/ 10 the back of the head in some places
| there was raw surface to be covered with
| new skin. Portions of the healthy tissue
| of Mrs. Baldwin's sister, Miss Eleanor
Moore, were transplanted to the wound