The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-08-12
FINDS DROWNING
AWFUL SENSATION
MISS SCHROEDER BROUGHT BACK
TO LIFE TELLS WHAT IT
- LIKE TO DROWN.

1t is worse to be brought back to
life. The feeling of utter hopeless
ness and the instantaneous remem-
brance of hundred incidents, a gasp
frightful experience. This is mental
agony. With resuscitation comes phys
ical pain. The coursing of the blood
through the arteries produces an ex-
other torment can inflict.
Such was the experience of Miss
Lucille Schroeder when she sank off
the WestpOrt beach a week ago Sat-
urday and was brought back to life
after she had been forty three min
utes unconscious. She says even the
sight of water is painful to her says
the Seattle Times.
Ignorant of her high school compan-
ions death and herself suffering from
a severe attack of nervous prostration
that may prove fatal, Miss Schroeder,
who was bathing with Miss Edna Da-
wilson at Westport when both girls
went beyond their depth and the lat
ter was drowned. lies at her home. 129
Twenty-fourth avenue South, denied
visitors and under a physicians con-
slant attention. Fifteen minutes sub
merged in the waters of Grays Harbor
and % minutes afterwards unconscious
before resuscitatfon had an effect upon
the young woman, (which it may take
years to overcome. So precarious has
been her condition during the past
week since the fatal accident that her
parents did not dare to tell that her
friends had lost her life.
Nerves Are Shattered.
Not until yesterday was she sufh-
GENTLY recovered to permit her being
brought from the summer resort to her
Seattle home. After the agonies of be-
ing brought back to life she has pro-
crossed better than her physicians had
expected. Her lungs are in good con-
dition, but it is the nerves that are
badly affected. Shortly after reaching
home she became worse and is now
worse than she had been at any time
since the narrow escape.
Although always a frail girl, Miss
Schroeder's recuperative powers have
proved almost unsurpassed. After pass
ing through all the experiences OF a
drowning person, the unfortunate girl.
lapsed into Inconsistencies and re-
manned insensible to all that was hap
pening about her for 43 minutes Twice
was the effort to resuscitate her given
up in desperation by the heroic force
from the life saving station and had If
not been for the encouragement from
a woman in the camp, who would not
give up hope, she would have suffered
the same fate as did Miss Davidson.
After the men had given up the strug-
gle, the woman insisted that they try
again. A second time they gave it up
and again she pleaded with them. That
time the spark of life grew and cons
ciousness was restored.
Cannot Recall Events.
But even now Miss Schroeder cannot
recall the incidents Immediately pre-
ceeding the accident. The promenade
of the girls up and down the beach
and the manner of the drowning she
does not remember
81 never even want to see water
again." she said to her mother as soon
as the latter was able to reach her
after hearing of the drowning of Miss
Davidson and the narrow escape of
her daughter Il cannot describe the
feeling. The instantaneous thought Of
a hundred different things is awful
But that is nothing compared to the
agony of being brought back to life
again. The blood coursing through the
veins, the action of the heart and the
shock of it all is awful agony
The girls first thought was for her
companion. She was told that she
would recover, and ever since the fatal
day she has been made to believe that
Miss Davidson, although in a more
precarious condition than she; is still
alive
1.-THE doctor would not let US tell
her the TRUTH" said her mother yes
terday. HE is afraid the shock would
be fatal She thinks her school friend
is alive and will recover. Poor Mr.
Davidson is still searching for the body
of his daughter, devising new kinds Of
dragging apparatus every day.
ITO see my daughter alive was like
finding one brought back from the
dead. Lucille was always frail; that is
why We let her go to the beach.
am reallys surprised the way she raj
lied. l think she will get over the
shock, although 1 shall not let her at
tend the high school next year. when
she would have been a senior had it