The Washington herald., 1915-12-12
pecial 70 ne WashinGtoa Hasld.

StDS1.1 ~ ~ W a011o,
Pittsburgh, Pa. Dec. LII Jim Shaw.
Lawrenceville representative In the Ma
ttonals' pitching stan. has - mnch luck
In baseball battles a. he had In the
battle for his life Clark Grinith has one
Of the greatest pitchers In the world. for
the youngster certainly had . narrow
escape from death - the result Of q
gunshot wound the size Of q half dollar
that extended through his neck from the
right front to the left side Immediately
below the ear. He'll never have a closer
call. Almost unheard-of surgical skill
pulled him through and put him in q po-
sition to continue his career as . ball
player. --
Jim Shaw il one person in a thousand
who has had . charge from a twelve
gauge shotgun pass through his neck and
lived to tell about It. Precarious would
hardly describe his condition when for
ten days he hovered between life and
death at st. Francis Hospital here while
physicians and nurses marveled at his
iron nerve and never-say-die spirit that
were pulling him practically out OF the
grave. 1t seemed only q matter of how
long he would fight OF the demon death
when he was admitted to the hospital q
month ago. after he had accidentally
discharged his shotgun while hunting
rabbits near ,I<iskimentas Junction 1t
was one Of those cases where more fig
uring is done to ease the suffering Of the
patient than to save his life.
While the nurses and physicians count
ed the hours the young pitcher had to
live through. his fond mother and sister
sat anxiously at his bedside. hoping
against hope and praying for the best.
Grave doctors visited the young athlete
ever 70 often and applied remedies to
ease his pain. but Jim's sameness was
one of the seven wonders. and as the
hours wore into days the surgeons began
to hope with the mother and sister.
Too Serious to Probe.
Although the wound had been cleaned
out, the surgeons had done practically
no probing. Jim's condition was too se,i-
GUS for any OF that. They had injected
serum into the hole at times. but with
the coming Of hope the doctors started
to pick out the tiny lead pellets and
pieces Of wadding that were scattered in
a thousand places through the patients
neck. Day after day they worked and
shot after shot was taken out. II was
a tedious task. and II finally came to the
point where the X-rsy had to be called
in to locate the little lead balls. A photo
was made OF the wound. and with this
as a guide the doctors picked and picked
at the wound. The photo showed the
real extent of the wound-it was q jagged
hole extending from the front Of the
right side of the neck to the rear of the
left side.
The shot passed between the windpipc
and the spinal cord. but not a pellet
touched either. Just one little No. s
lead pellet II II had touched either the
or the spinal cord. would have
snapped of Jim's life if II were a
twig. for his life was only hanGing by
a slender thread. But the shot wasn't
the only thing the doctors had to battle
with. There were any number OF other
that could and might have
happened, most notable of which were
he danger of the development Of tetanus.
blood poisoning. and pneumonia. Serum
was injected into the wound at intervals !