The evening times., 1899-03-11
KEPT ALIVE BY ONE NERVE.
A Woman LinEers In "A Hospital With
a Broken Neck.

New York, March 11.-Mrs. Mary Tirk-
ington, whose neck is broken, is kept alive
by single nerve. 1t is only question OF
time, the physicians say, when the matter
in the womans paralyzed backbone will
degenerate, destroy the nerve and cause
death. The physicians at the Harlem Hos
pital, where the woman is lying, do not
hope to save her life, for her only chance
is in an operation so difficult and so deli
cate that woman of her age could never
stand it. She is fifty-nine years old. In
her plight the faculty of speech is unim-
paired.
Mrs. Tirkington was servant at No.
115 East 105th Street. She was manipulat-
ing a pulley used in hanging out clothes.
when she slipped from the second STORY
platform of the fire escape, striking on her
head and breaking her neck. She was
taken to the Harlem Hospital.
Dr. Schoonover, the house surgeon, found
the fifth cervical vertebra was fractured.
The woman was parayZed from neck to
toes. To test her sensibiiity a needle was
stuck into the skin of her hand. She show
ed no sign of feeling it. Everything that
surgery could do for her was done. She
knew it. She told the physicians that she
understood they were doing their best but
as mercy she begged to be permitted to
die.
Mrs. Tirkington was lying upon rubber
mattress filled with water when seen.
Her head is raised upon a thin pillow.
| Under the womans jaw passed string, to
which was fastened a stout cord. The cord
was drawn through pulley block fastened
| to the head of the bed AT the other end
of the cord was a bag filled with weights.
The pulling of the weights took the strain
| from the broken neck. II kept the shat
| tered yertebra from cutting into the spinal
| cord.
Had the fourth cervical vertebra beer
| broken instead of the fifth the woman
would have been dead long ago. Yesterday
! she was alive because the phrenic nerve
which comes from the spinal column at The
/ fourth cervical vertebra, was keeping hel
| diaphram moving. The up and down move
| ment of the diaphram pressed the lung:
and enabled her 10 breathe. The heart wa!
| acting because the nerves which keep i
up come direct from the skull, from tn,
| medulla oblongata and not from the spine
The woman was breathing just enough Il
! keep alive. The degeneration of the spi
| nal marrow in cases such as hers general!
| kills in three days. Yet the burden of tn
body still clung TO the head, which lived
The bodily functions were no longer unde
control, for all spinal nerves below th
fourth cervical yertebra were dead.
Consultation by the physicians onl.
showed the hopciessness of the woman
case. There remained hazardous and dir
| ficult operation. The administration o
anaesthetics would lower the vitality, AM
the feeble action OF the diaphram would b
| made still weaker. In the case Of young
er person. one who had reserve strength
J the ODeration would have hPen attempt ed
Those who recover from such an operation
are few, even under the best conditions
The last case OF broken neck was report
ed from Bellevue Hospital. The patien
lived three days The doctors are wonder
ing how Mary Tirkington lives at all.