The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-03-09
35 FRIENDS KEEPING PARAL YZED MAN ALIVE
Work in Relays at Artificial
Respiration for Seventy
Hours.
DEATHS HAND STAYED
Patient Better Than at Any
Time Since Sunday.
BIZ United Press


EVANSTON, ILL.,, March "a
modern battle with death, with thir-
ty-five men offering physical endur-
ance and medical science in an at.
tempt to give artificial respiration to
Alfred Prick, is being waged today in
a white-walled room at st. Francis
Hospital.
Prick is suffering from paralysis
of the diaphragm and cannot
breathe, yet for more than seventy
hours a group of his co-workers has
kept him alive.
Indications that the valiant fight
being waged was showing results
came this morning when doctors an
nounced:
"Frick Is in better condition now
than he has been since Sunday"
The patient is conscious. He is
able to speak only few words, these
words are encouragement and
thanks to the men who are making
life possible for him.
One week ago Frick had two
teeth removed. He became i'll last
Thursday and complained of acute
pains in his stomach and chest. Sat
urday progressive paralysis set in
and he lost the use of his legs.
Sunday morning respiration be
came next to impossible and DR.
Charles Read, specialist in nervous
disorders. announced paralysis Of the
diaphram was setting in.
Breathing Ceased
Tricks respiration ceased entirely
at noon that day and three doctors
working two at a time and in exact
rhythm, forced artificial breathing
and kept life within Frick.
] The monotonous rhythmic press
ingyon Tricks chest was holding life
in the patient, but the three doctor:
were firing. Word passed that vol
unteers were needed to keep ALFRED
Frick alive.
Coworkeys from the Public Serv
ice Company of Northern Illinois
where the 22-year-old victim worked
volunteered.
In groups of two they walked into
the room where the wan-faced Fricl
"a trace of a smile over his rather
boyish face-sat strapped in a chair
The stenographers, bookkeepers an(
statesmen of the power company
were given rudimentary course ir
science-that of pressing regularly
to establish artificial respiration
and the battle with death continued
AT first the couples worked foi
thirty-minute shifts. Then when Il
became apparent that a protractet
| fight was on, the shifts were cut tc
fifteen minutes.
Work Without Break
Day and night, without a breal,
in the steady pressing, the workers
have stood over Frick, maintaining
life within him. One pause in the
pressing means death, because Frick
has no way of breathing save for
the constant, untirlng work of his
comrades.
Since Sunday F'rick has been able
to sleep only fifteen minutes. He is
unable to eat and is nourished with
a glucose solution injected into his
leg a quart at a time.
His illness is diagnosed as Ian
dry's paralysis and is manifested as
a paralysis Of the spinal cord and
lower center Of the brain. This has
cut off the nerve supply and has
paralyzed the chest wall muscles.
Medical authorities were unable to
say when a break in the malady
could be expected, as the disease is
rare and the prolonging of life
through artificial respiratlon-for
such time as has passed-is much
more rare.