Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-09
AUTO ACCIDENT
VICTIMS BETTER
FREEMAN EXPECTED TO LEAVE
HOSPITAL TODAY
EIGHOLZ DISPLAYS NERVE ON
OPERATING TABLE
Injured Man Refuses to Take Anaes-
thetc and BraveIy Watches Sur
eeons Work-Insists on
Phoning Wife

Harry C. Freeman, manager of the
Locomo bile Stearns $4,000 race which
will be held at Ascot park Saturday,
and J. Lawrence Eigholz, who were in
jured seriously and narrowly escaped
death in an automobile accident on
the Venice road early Thursday morn
ing, are slowly but surely recovering
at the California hospital.
Freeman has been rounding up his
work for the race on his bed of pain
and hopes to be able to leave the hos
pital today or tomorrow. He had
planned to leave yesterday, but de-
cided to put off the move until sure
that it would have no i'll effect.
An examination of Eigholz's arm by
the X-ray disclosed the fact that his
right arm was broken just beneath
the shoulder. II is what is known as
a green stick" fracture, not so serious
as where the bone is broken squarely
off. 1t is expected that this will heal
quickly.
Freemans story of the long wait in
the dark, wounded and bleeding,
while Eigholz was unconscious and
pinned underneath the machine, and
the death of both was threatened as
the leaking gasoline crept toward the
Still burning front lights, has been
told.
coIapses at Hospital
There is a no less interesting story
of what happened at the hospital af-
ter these two plucky newspaper men
reached there.
Eigholz had been unconscious since
the accident, which occurred more
than two hours before they reached
the hospital. Freeman had been con-
scious and had done all in his power
to help his friend, who could not
help himself. OF the accident itself
and of the two hours while he was
pinned under the heavy machine and
of the ride toward town in the meat
wagon, Eigholz has no recollection
whatever.
But when the hospital was reached,
Gigholz woke up and Freeman, worn
out with the watching and the pain.
collapsed.
"You fellows tend to that man first"
said Eigholz to the surgeons. Hes
worse off than 1 am. l can walt
and Freeman. with the broken bones
of his arm sticking through the flesh,
was taken to the operating table.
Eigholz was so severely cut that the
part of his scalp above his eyes was
hanging over them in such a way that
the physicians feared at first that one
There were two gashes, one on each
leg close to the knee, cut clear to the
bone. When it came his turn, DR.. e.
]. Cook turned to Eigholz and sug-
gested that he take an anaesthetic.
Refuses Anaesthetc
go on and sew me up" was the pa
| tents answer. "I know what you've
got to do. 1 used to be a police re-
porter and I've seen many Chinaman
and many a negro sewed up without
squealing. If they could do it, 1 guess
a white man can"
The surgeons and the nurses thought
their patient was delirious and unable
to feel pain and began their work.
"I knew they thought I didn't know
what 1 was about" said Eigholz in his
room at the hospital yesterday. II just
wanted to fool them and l counted the
stitches. They had taken eight and
then I said to the surgeon-I couldn't
see him but I knew he was there
That's eight, isn't it? How many
have you got to take Then he knew
that I knew too.
you see, 1 wanted them to begin on
my head because I figured that it
would be most painful there, being
close to my eyes, and 1 wanted to have
the worst of it over first when l had
the strength.
"But would you believe it, the legs
were a whole lot worse. When the
doctor looked at the first leg and saw
the cut I heard him say to the nurse:
Great Scott, you could put dog in
that
"'Never mind the dog, but go on
with the stitching and get it over
with, I told him, and he started in"
Broken Arm Overlooked
The doctors, when they had finished,
had taken twelve stitches in Eigholz's
forehead and eight stitches in each
leg. And all the time he had broken
arm that they didn't know anything
about until that afternoon when the
X-ray revealed the fracture to them.
When he was all bandaged up and
the operation was finished, DR.. Cook
suggested that he telephone to Mrs.
Eigholz and tell her that her husband
was in the hospital.
Never you mind telephoning my
wife. I'll do that myself" said the in
jurSd man.
But that's out of the question.
man." said the astonished surgeon.
You just pack me into wheel
chair and wheel me to a telephone.
don't want my wife scared to death.
I'll telephone myself"
And he did it, with every tendon in
his bo(~ sprained and aching. In an
hour she was with her husband and
the ordeal was over The surgeons
say that it was a pretty plucky eXhi-