Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-04-11
DIES THREE TIMES
RETURNS TO LIFE
CALLS ron WATER AFTER HIS
SECOND pKMlsE
Strange Case o. 30o-Peund Laborsr
Fatally Injured by Fall From
Hay Wagon.

i
Hay Wagon.
Denver, Col.-Death comes but
once to the ordinary man. bat to
Charles Gallagher. So years old. and
Weighing nearly 800 pounds. II came
three times before 1t decided to re-
main. Three times In the early morn
Ing hours nurses and physicians In
tie county hospital pronounced their
patient dead, only to learn In two OF
the instances that the evidences Of
death had been faiss-thst the tests
had failed. It was not until rigor
mortis stiffened the body following
the third death that the authorities
felt safe in turning the body over to
| the coroner.
II was about o'clock on the prsvi-
| Gus afternoon that some farmhands.
employed on the ranch Of ]. L. Taylor
near Arvada, heard screams for help.
Hurting in the direction Of the shouts.
they found that Gallagher. another
| workman, had fallen from hay WAS.
| on with the result that his back had
been broken. They summoned Mr..
Taylor. who hurried Gallagher to the
county hospital in q motor car, Or
irving there about 1850 o'clock.
There It 90 found that In addition
| to the broken back. Gallagher also
was suffering from . fracture OF the
skull. Death was almost q certainty.
Hat neither the doctors nor the nurses
had even . vision Of the multitu-
dinous death to como.
Therefore. when at 1:s6 o'clock
next morning. Gallagher's pulse. heart
and breathing ceased. the physicians
applied the usual tests for death and
ordered the body and bed Of Gallagher
into the dressing room" or dead
ROOM" to be shrouded. The garments
of death were wrapped about the body
of the man. the eyes were closed, the
hands were pinioned that when the
rigor of death came they would be In
place. Then the door was closed and
the dead" man left for the coroner.
The operation had consumed about
fifteen minutes. Five minutes later.
Miss Grace Cramor. . nurse. passing
the door of the dressing room, paused
ut q horrible, gurgling. straining sound
from within. She turned and opened
the door.
With o scream the nurse half reel
ID, then lsaped forward. There on
the bed, his face contortsd, his
wrists purple. his broken frame con-
vulsing and swaying AZ he struggled
against his bonds. Charles Gallagher.
pronounced dead twenty minutes be-
fore, was seeking to free his hands
and to call for help.
Quickly the nurse released his
bonds and summoned the physicians.
The excited beating OF the pulse
soothed and became normal again.
For fully ave minutes there was every
evidence Of an entire return to life.
Then the pulse weakened once more.
the eyes glazed again and the stethos-
copes denoted that the heart had
ceased its beating entirely. From one
TO another travelled the slances Of the
physicians.
"There's no doubt about It this
time" they said. "But just the same
well watch
And there they remained. watching
the still form of the man on the bed.
A quarter Of An hour, . half hour.
,-hils test after test was made. And
with every test there came the reply
that life was gone. Five minutes
more-eight minutes mors-and then
the cry, His hearts beating again."
It was q physician with his ear to
; Z stethoscope. Another doctor list
ened. The faint beating Of the heart
became stronger: at the wrists there
Dame evidence Of pulse. Life had
returned.
Bat this time life Was fainter, fssb-
lsr. Where the pslss had been strong
before, It WAS weak now. Gallagher,
twice dead, turned his head slightly,
His lips mumbled somsthins. The
nurse bent low.
what 10 1T"
"Water-watsr." his Lips gaspsd
The nurse turned. She hurried
forth and returned. But whom she
entered the room again the doctors
once more were applying the ststh
oscopes and shaking their heads. ToI
life had departed again. And this
time in certainty.
But with two returns to life already
recorded, there was not even chance
for certainty now. 1t WAS not until
three hours later, when the hospital
authorities felt sure that life really
had denarted. that the authorities fel,
ssfs in notifying the coroner that thu
body really Was ready for his care.
"Explanationf" exclaimed one o.
the physicians when Questioned about
the strange case. there isn't any ex
PLANTATION. The man just died three
times, and that's al there 10 to it
Every test Of death that We know
was applied TO him and they al show
*. that life was negative. The maj
We dead-to every possible test
Then he came to life again. That u
Il ~ Y