The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1939-02-10
GIVEN Is MONTHS
TO LIVE, DAREDEVIL
FOOLS HIS DOCTOR
Doomed to Be Helpless Cripple,
4 He's Beating His Own
s. Way Back. s


ST. LOUIS.-Eighteen months ago
Ray Woods, mild-mannered little
daredevil who became the country's
No. I bridge jumper, was told that
IL he lived he would be helpless
cripple.
That was on March %, 1897, the
day he jumped from the San Fran
CISCO Oakland Bay bridge. He was
blown off balance in the midst of his
186-foot plunge and was pulled from
the water with several crushed YER
tebrae.
''He won't live "a hours" physi-
clans said.
Woods fooled them. He's the only
man who ever jumped from the
bridge and lived to tell about it.
Hell be a bed-ridden cripple"
the doctors later insisted. He fooled
them again. Last summer he swan
mile every day.
Hell never be able to walk"
they said.
And Ray Woods intends to fool
them on that one, too. He leaned
on his crutches, smiled a determined
smile and vowed:
''I'n be walking normally within
a year two years at the most"
Career Is Ended.
Then he added:
But I'll never dive again. Even
If I regain the use of my legs, I
could never stand the physical shock
of striking the water. And even if I
could have no desire to dive now"
The same logged courage that led
him to defy death In countless high
dives all over the country has en-
abled Woods to win at least partial
victory In his battle for recovery.
After the dive physicians dag
noSed Woods injury as compound
fracture of FIVE vertebrae Even If
he lived, they reported, he would
be helpless invalid the rest of his
life.
A month later, when Woods wife,
Bernice, and his mother brought
him back to St. Louis he was para
lyzed from the shoulders down. But
an operation disclosed his spinal
cord was not severed. A surgeon
cut away part of the crushed third,
fourth and fifth vertebrae, between
the shoulder blades, relieving pres
sure on the spinal cord and allowing
nerve impulses to pass through to
the lower part of his body.
Treatments with slow-wave cleo
trio generator stimulated his para
lyzed muscles.
Says: "I'n Walk Again."
His wheel chair gave way to
crutches and, with braces support
ing his legs, he began to walk. Last
spring he moved with his wife and
father-in-law to a secluded lodge on
the Meramec river, Is miles from
St. Louis.
There he spent every, day in a
swimming pool.
AS the result of his exercise
Woods crippled legs are fully de-
veloped. He now weighs $50 pounds.
During his 10 years of professional
diving he was in perfect condition
at 135 pounds.
Woods does not look upon his ca
reer as a diver with regret because
it has left him, temporarily, at least,
q cripple.
II made all my dives for money,
not for the thrill. The shock Of
striking the water after a 100-foot
dive often left me unconscious. !
was just like a boxer going into the
ring. He knows he probably is go
ing to be hurt and doesn't like it,
but he wants the money.
81 dived because / loved to travel
and that was the only way knew
to see the country and get paid for
it. I have no regrets. I've seen
most of the United States. Canada
and Mexico. I've crammed three
ordinary lives of excitement and
sight seeing into my 80 years. And
before long I'll be walking again."