Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-07-31
ELEVATOR SHAFT ACCIDENTS.
The A%SOnizinE Experience of q
Washington Man Which He Will
Not Soon Forget.

Washington Of persons falling down
elevator shafts recall to me an expert
ence l once had which l would care
never to repeat" said a clerk in anIup-
town hotel, according to the Washing
ton Star.
81 was living in Philadelphia at the
time. My physician advised me to I'M
dergo an operation, and | assented.
Arrangements were made for me at
one of the large hospitals for the
Quaker city where l would have good
attention and a private room. l left
the surgeons Office, accompanying
him and my brother across the street
to the hospital. On the way, the doc
tor suggested that I stop in a drug
store where, on his prescription, took
a stiff drink of whisky. We all joked,
as men are apt to do in the face of
danger, as to whether it was to be my
last drink though l confess l did not
feel at all humorous, as | was appre-
hensive of the outcome of the opera
ton.
"When the towel saturated with
ether was applied to my nostrils, l
said 'good-by,' and passed into uncon-
seriousness. Then came darkness and
oblivion, and in an hour l returned to
my senses with buzzing head, very
weak, but with that vague, peculiar,
indescribable realization that L had
not died, as I j had feared from the fail
ure of a weak heart, and the faces of
the surgeons and attendants around
me became gradually distinct.
"The Railways of the hospital were
spacious, and the elevators and their
entrances of corresponding width to
admit of the carrying and rolling of
patients from the operating room to
their wards or private apartments on
different floors on a specially pre-
pared table with rubber rollers upon
the mattress of which the patient is
lifted from the operating table.
81 felt myself being pushed alocg
the hall toward the elevator shaft. |
was lying with my head toward the
attendants hands, my feet being to-
ward the shaft. l noticed that the
door leading into the shaft was open,
and, as the table approached it, faint
ly wondered why the attendants did
not slack speed, but they went on to-
ward it. AS weak and desperately
nauseated as l was from the effects
of the anesthetic and the operation, |
saw to my horror that unless the mo-
mentum of the table was stopped that
/ would be plunged down the elevator
shaft. In that moment of terrible,
helpless agony, 1 seemed to scream
loud enough to be heard a block away,
but reality my voice scarcely arose
above a whisper. Then l heard the
excited tones of voices. felt that the
attendants were sliding upon the
smooth, wooden floor in their futile
efforts to dig their heels therein and
to check the momentum of the table.
The next instant it was upon and over
the sill of the elevator shaft entrance,
and 1 was hurled 80 feet below to the
bottom of the shaft.
"The sensations of that frightful in
slant of time consumed in my posing
at the entrance sill to the shaft, and
then feeling myself slip off the table
and descend into space, were such that
they may be better left to the magma
ton, for words are not capable of
their portrayal. 1t seemed as if the
hospital building had collapsed and
fallen entirely upon me, and then my
senses instantly left me. When I came
to several hours afterward, I was ly.
ing in bed in my room with my brother
and the house staff standing anxiously
at my bedside.
"To shorten a story of long suffer-
ing, my miraculous escape from in
slant death was due to the providen-
tial slipping Of the thick mattress
from the table, and it so fell with me
that I landed upon it to the bottom of
the shaft, breaking the shock of the
fall and saving my neck. The doctors
agreed that it was only my remarkable
constitution that enabled me to live
through such a terrific double shock to
the system of an operation and a high
fall while in the sequelae of the opera
ton and within an hour. Luckily, my
wound was such that the fall did moi
seriously reopen it.
"As in the case of the sad death OF
DR.. Fisher in this city, who stepped
into an elevator shaft, supposing the
car to be in place, the hospital attend.
ants in my instance seeing the door
open, as they afterward told me, sup
posed that the car was also in place,
and they pushed the table rapidly to-
ward the entrance under that SUPPOSE
ton, only seeing their error too late
to atOn its ~mnmanfumM