Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-11-26
CR|PPLES RUSH
HOSPITAL DOORS
|MPLOR|NC AID
Seek Relief at Hands
of Famous Austrian
Surgeon
DIR. Lorenz Shocked at Prevel.
ance Spinal Diseases-May
Give Rest of Life to Aiding
Sufferers-Offered Complete
Hospital in New York City

New York, Nov. oo-Misery so
poignant and so widespread. greeted
DIR. Adolph Lorenz, famous Austrian
orthopedic surgeon, on the steps and
in the halls of the hospital for joint
diseases today that he said he had
almost decided to devote the remain
der Of his days to alternating the suf-
ferings Of Americas cripples.
DR.. Lorenz said at the end of his
first "gratitude' clinic that never in
all his career had he been affected
as he was by the sight of hundreds
of MANNED distorted humans, clam
oring for his aid. And never. he
added, had he seen a land so sorely
in need of relief from spinal and
other troubles superinduced by an
fantile paralysis.
His observation So far, he de-
clared. led him to believe there We're
ten or fifteen times as many" such
sufferers in the United States as in
Any OtutI country III the WOllu. J1t
was appalled,, he said. at what he
had found since coming here to repay
some part of Americas bounty to
starving Austrian children.
| Whether he will accept a 20-room
hospital in Brooklyn which NJ. G.
Collins, an oil man. has offered to
equip and to endow with the pro-
7 of G0nn Oln
cept an invitation to be consulting
surgeon at the. hospital for joint dis
eases is yet to be decided. according
! to DR.. Lorenz's assistant, DIR. c. Wey-
man.
The question of when he will make
a proposed tour of other cities also
is undetermined. SO many cripples
DR.. Iorenz is unwilling to leave, DIR.
| Weyman said.
!. After working like mad more than
five hours, DR.. I.orenz had seen 1o5
cripples scarcely one tenth. Of the
supplicants for aid who crowded, the
hospital and the streets outside, com
ing on Crutches, in wheel chairs and
some of the more fortunate-in au-
tOmOhiles
And during those busy five hours.
he said afterwards he had advised
enough operations to keep one sur
geon busy for six months.
Police reserves had to he called to
handle the crowds outside. Every
time that DIR. Lorenz appeared in the
corridors, darting from one room to
another, where more patients had
been disposed for him. there was a
clatter of crutches and canes on the
marble floor as the eager crowd
surged forward in piteous effort to
attract his attention. Some wept
when attendants pressed them back
as they saw the tall patriarchal fig
.ure of the doctor disappear behind a
closed door.
Long before he had torn himself
away to rush to Morris Plains, n. j.,
for lecture and clinical demonstra-
ton at the New Jersey State hos
! pital, wistful eyed men and women
| On crutches and others carrying
crippled children fingered in the
street outside. hoping against hope
that the doctor would come back
DIR. Lorenz told the hospital auth
critics he would gladly continue daily
clinics as long as there We're appli-
cants. 1t was his contribution, he
said, to help repay the debt Austria
owed America for the aid she has
given starving Austrians.
When there was talk Of raising a
great fund to cndow a hospital in
which he could carry on his work.
| he said: Gould not some little bit of
it be given to my little Viennese chill
dren? 1t would be only fair