The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-11-12
BRINGS BACK TO LIFE THOSE
WHO ARE APPARENTLY DEAD
New invention Is the Pulmotor, Which viii
Often Revive Persons Drowned or
AsphyxiatCd.

all the unconcern Of thing inanimate.
One OF the men gives terse directions;
the other executes them nimbly with
deft fingers
In the meantime the mystic some.
thing called life is struggling within
the man whose arms hang Imply at his
sides. but the man does not know of
the struggle, because for the present at
least tile, thing called life is a force
emancipated from his being, a fugitive
from cosmos clinging to things earthly
and now released to fight its own des
perate battle. IL flutters on the verge
of the hintefland between that which
is called life and that which is called
death.
Signs of Life.
A finger ;twitches. An unearthly
culver. not of death and not yet of
life, futters TREMENDOUSLY through the
limp form There is Slight, ever so
slight rising and falling of the chest.
The life spark is gaining. Again the
fingers twitch, and there is scarcely
perceptible mavement of the arm.
Breath. like lost soul returning to
its asylum, comes flutteringly as if slip
ping from n vise then becomes regular,
though still fighting a thousand obsta-
cles. But the life spark has won its
| battle
And the operators of the weirdly sim.
pie little apparatus in the wooden box
walk away silently, perhaps trembling
/ ". because they know that they have
grappled with that mystic, unearthly
force that no man understands.
| Is this bringing the dead back to
| life1
The men who operate the pulmotor
hesitate when the question is put. Per
laps they shake their heads and grave
ly assert that the dead are irrevocably
! lost TO the living and never return. Or
perhaps they put counter question:
What is DEATH
And what is lifef
"No definition of life has ever proved
quite satisfactory, says a scientist
writing in "The Americana.
'Tbe boundary between living and not
living matter is much less distinct than
rough inspection suggests
IN Emergency Cases.
Calls for the pulmotor in suicide
cases generally are made through the
police. In otheY emergencies, such as
gas aSpnyXlatlOn ana drowning, IHt
services of the pulmotor may be OBJ
tanned by anyone by calling the load
dispatcher Is office of the Commonwealth
Edison Company. An apparatus and
two experienced operators will b'
rushed by automobile from the nearest
pulmotor station and will be on thu
scene a few minutes after the call hat
been sent in.
The pulmotor, though still in its in
fancy, has proved especially efficient il
cases of gas asphyxiation, drowning
: electric shock and bromine poisoning
There is suggestion of its ultimat
possibilities in the case of an infan
who, by the application of the pull
motor, was aided to overcome the crisi
/ in severe bronchial attack.
Two Hundred Successful Treatments
Paul B. Juhnke, in charge of tn
Commonwealth Edison Company g pul
motor department, is of too praetica
mind TO discuss the spectacular fea
lures of the apparatus. He prefers Z
rely upon the evidence of figures.
eve have had 260 cases since W
. introduced the pulmotor here, he said
7 ""Several of these were not pnlmOto
! cases, and in others death had alread
D occurred when the apparatus arrived
= But | should say that we have success
fully treated 200 cases.