Death of Houdini : snopes.com - - Claim: Escape artist Harry Houdini died from a ruptured appendix caused by his being punched in the stomach. LEGEND Origins: Nearly everyone familiar with world-famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, no matter how little they know about his life, knows one thing about his death: That a boastful Houdini died from trying to impress some college students with his toughness. As legend has it, Houdini was fond of explaining to his fans that by tightening his abdominal muscles he could withstand the hardest punches to the midsection a man could deliver, and one day a college student who was present when Houdini repeated his boast decided to test the claim by raining blows to the magician's midriff. The stomach punches caught Houdini by surprise before he had time to prepare himself, however, resulting in a trauma that ruptured his appendix and ultimately caused his death a few weeks later. Although some of the basic facts of this narrative are correct, its assumption of the cause and effect that led to Houdini's untimely demise likely is not.

The chain of events leading up to Houdini's final passing began in mid-October 1926, while he was undertaking a series of shows in the northeastern part of North America. Despite having broken his ankle while performing his famous Water-Torture Cell escape in Albany several days earlier, Houdini, ever the trouper, kept his engagement at the Princess Theater in Montreal and opened there on 18 October 1926. The following day Houdini delivered a lecture at McGill University about exposing fraudulent spiritualists and mediums, and afterwards he stayed around to chat with various faculty members and students. A student named Samuel J. Smilovitch approached Houdini with a sketch he'd made of the escape artist; Houdini was impressed with the drawing and invited the young man to come backstage after one of his shows and do a full portrait. Smilovitch took Houdini up on his offer, bringing along his friend Jack Price to meet the magician in the lobby of the Princess Theater the morning of Friday, 22 October. They followed Houdini to his dressing room, and a few minutes later another McGill student named Joselyn Gordon Whitehead knocked on the door.

What then occurred was later described by Jack Price and included in a book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Houdini was facing us and lying down on a couch at the time reading some mail, his right side nearest us. This first-year student [Whitehead] engaged Houdini more or less continually whilst my friend Mr. Smilovitch continued to sketch Houdini. This student was the first to raise the question of Houdini's strength. My friend and I were not so much interested in his strength as we were in his mental acuteness, his skill, his beliefs, and his personal experiences. Houdini stated that he had extraordinary muscles in his forearms, in his shoulders and in his back, and he asked all of us present to feel them, which we did. The first-year McGill student asked Houdini whether it was true that punches in the stomach did not hurt him. Houdini remarked rather unenthusiastically that his stomach could resist much, though he did not speak of it in superlative terms. Thereupon he gave Houdini some very hammer-like blows below the belt, first securing Houdini's permission to strike him.

Houdini was reclining at the time with his right side nearest Whitehead, and the said student was more or less bending over him. These blows fell on that part of the stomach to the right of the navel, and were struck on the side nearest to us, which was in fact Houdini's right side; I do not remember exactly how many blows were struck. I am certain, however, of at least four very hard and severe body blows, because at the end of the second or third blow I verbally protested against this sudden onslaught on the part of this first-year student, using the words, "Hey there. You must be crazy, what are you doing?" or words to that effect, but Whitehead continued striking Houdini with all his strength. Houdini stopped him suddenly in the midst of a punch, with a gesture that he had had enough. At the time Whitehead was striking Houdini, the latter looked as though he was in extreme pain and winced as each blow was struck.

Houdini immediately after stated that he had had no opportunity to prepare himself against the blows, as he did not think that Whitehead would strike him as suddenly as he did and with such force, but that he would have been in a better position to prepare for the blows if he had risen from his couch for this purpose, but the injury to his foot prevented him from getting about rapidly. Despite Price's first-hand account, much dispute remains over exactly what took place in Houdini's dressing room that day. Houdini's wife Bess, a nurse named Sophie Rosenblatt, and Bess's niece Julia Sawyer were also present, and the details of their stories differ. Did Joselyn Whitehead really show up after Smilovitch and Price arrived, or had Smilovitch brought him along? Was Whitehead really a McGill student, or was he an amateur boxer (or both)? Was he already known to Houdini (as he presumably was if, as some rumors report, he had shown up to return some books he had borrowed from the magician).

Did Whitehead really "secure Houdini's permission" before delivering blows to the magician's stomach, or did he mistake Houdini's casual response to his query as permission to proceed and strike before Houdini was prepared? Did Houdini even really boast that he could withstand such punches? Whatever happened, Houdini was definitely suffering from severe stomach pains by mid-afternoon, although he carried on with that evening's show and two more performances the next day. On the train to Detroit (where Houdini was scheduled to begin a two-week run of performances the following day) he was suffering mightily from the pain in his stomach, so a worried Bess telegraphed ahead and arranged for a doctor to be standing by at their hotel when they arrived. Unfortunately, their train was late, and the Houdinis thus had no time to check into their hotel and headed straight for the theatre instead. The doctor finally caught up with Houdini at the theatre, examined him in the dressing room, found him to be running a fever of 104°F, diagnosed acute appendicitis, and proclaimed that Houdini should be taken straight to a hospital by ambulance.

Bess allegedly did not hear the doctor's diagnosis, and Houdini supposedly told the worried theater owner, prophetically, "I'll do this show if it's my last." Houdini rushed through his show and clearly was not performing well; before the third act began he finally decided that he could not carry on by himself and had his assistants finish some of his tricks for him. (Houdini did not collapse on stage, as is often reported, nor did he have to be rescued from the Water-Torture cell by an axe-wielding assistant, as portrayed in various film biographies.) Even then, Houdini would still not seek medical treatment, returning to his hotel before finally Bess "threw a tantrum" and summoned the hotel physician. The physician called a surgeon, who examined Houdini and told him that he must be hospitalized at once. Still, Houdini demurred, calling his personal physician, Dr. William Only after Houdini and the other doctors had talked to Dr. Stone did Houdini finally relent and agree to be taken to Grace Hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove his appendix that afternoon (Sunday, 24 October).

The surgeon who performed the operation found that Houdini's appendix had ruptured and the magician was suffering from peritonitis. The odds of surviving such an infection in the days before antibiotics were small, but Houdini gamely hung on for another four days before undergoing a second operation on Thursday, 28 October. He seemed to be recovering by the next day, but on Saturday his condition worsened, and the renowned magician escape artist passed away the next day at 52. Fittingly, the date was 31 October 1926: Halloween. The official cause of death was listed as diffuse peritonitis (i.e., an infection of the tissue lining the inner wall of the abdomen, typically resulting from an abdominal rupture), with ruptured appendicitis listed as a contributory factor.

When the details of Houdini's final weeks became known in the aftermath of his passing, the common assumption took hold that the blows to the right-hand side of his abdomen (the side on which the appendix is located) Houdini had received a few weeks before his death and his ruptured appendix were directly connected: It seemed a logical conclusion at the time, even to some of his doctors, and so the Houdini death legend began. But although we will likely never know precisely what caused the magician's fatal bout of appendicitis, with the advantage of several decades of hindsight we have good reason to be skeptical about that legend. First of all, given the contradictory accounts provided by the persons who were present when Houdini was punched in his dressing room by Gordon Whitehead, it's unclear what injury the magician sustained, and how badly he was hurt (if indeed he was injured at all), by those blows.

Second, reported cases in medical literature of appendicitis following blunt abdominal trauma are quite rare, and a 2010 review of such cases noted that there "has been much debate as to whether acute appendicitis following trauma is coincidental or causal." It's possible that the onset of Houdini's appendicitis was the result of his being punched in the stomach, but a direct connection between those two events is far less common or obvious than is widely believed. It's also possible (and perhaps much more likely) that there was a connection between the stomach blows Houdini experienced in his Montreal dressing room and his death from peritonitis a few weeks later, but in a different and more indirect fashion than is commonly assumed. Houdini may have already been suffering from the onset of appendicitis at the time Whitehead punched him and then attributed his subsequent abdominal discomfort to residual pain from those blows, causing him to delay seeking medical treatment for what otherwise would have been a routine case of appendicitis until after the organ had ruptured (producing a fatal case of peritonitis).

Had the dressing room incident not occurred, Houdini might have realized the pain he was experiencing was actually a symptom of a serious medical condition and not delayed so long in consulting doctors and undergoing surgery to deal with it. Sightings: The 1987 film Planes, Trains and Automobiles includes the following quote: "Hey you could have killed me by punching me in the stomach like that when I wasn't ready ... that's how Houdini died, ya know." Last updated: 2 September 2014 Sources: Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Health, Fitness and Nutrition. | Houdini’s Appendix Subscribe to Dr. Mirkin's free FITNESS & HEALTH NEWSLETTER Houdini’s Appendix Harry Houdini was probably the most famous escape artist, magician, and stunt performer of all time. He was short at five feet, five inches, stocky and bow-legged, with a sharp chin, bright blue eyes and curly black hair. He usually appeared in a long coat and tie, and was one of the cockiest performers ever to appear on stage. He died at age 52 from a ruptured appendix, reportedly caused by being punched in the stomach.

At that time, doctors thought that the appendix was a worthless appendage. Today we know how important it really is. Early Life and Career His real name was Erik Weisz and he was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. He came to the United States at age four, when his father accepted a job as a Rabbi in Appleton, Wisconsin. Two years later, his father lost his job and the family moved to New York City. He was always more athletic than everyone else. At age nine he gave public performances swinging on a trapeze, and he became a champion cross country runner. At age 17, he turned his talents as a magician into a professional act and changed his name to Harry Houdini after the French magician, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. He did not get any recognition until he started to escape from seemingly-impossible situations. At age 20, he married a fellow stage performer Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner who also became his life-long stage assistant. At age 25 his handcuff escape acts became so popular that he had a very successful tour of Europe. He would ask the local police to strip him naked, tie him up and lock him in their jails.

He returned from his European tour a very rich and famous man. While tied with straitjackets, handcuffs, chains and ropes, he escaped from large crates, milk cans, and the belly of a dead whale. His most famous escape was from a locked steel and glass chamber while he was hung upside down with his head under water, unable to breathe for more than three minutes. His brilliance was that he continued all his life to invent new acts that frightened the many people who came to see him. He almost died while escaping from a six-foot deep pit. While trying to dig himself out of the sand, he had to call for help and be dragged from the pit after he passed out. In another escape, he stayed underwater in a sealed casket for one and a half hours. How Houdini Died Houdini had broken his ankle while performing. A few days later, on October 22, 1926, he was lying on his couch in his dressing room, looking at his mail, when two McGill University students came to visit him. A third student, J. Gordon Whitehead, came in and asked Houdini if he was strong enough to withstand a punch in his belly.

He hit Houdini with all his might four times in the belly. Houdini winced with each punch and stopped Whitehead from hitting him a fifth time, stating that he had no opportunity to prepare himself because he did not expect Whitehead to strike him with such hard blows. That evening, Houdini was in such great pain that he gave a poor performance, but he refused to see a doctor. Two days later, his temperature was 102 °F. His doctor told him that he had acute appendicitis and needed surgery immediately. He chose to perform his scheduled show and arrived at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, with a fever of 104 °F. He gave the worst performance of his life. He missed cues and in the middle of the third act, he told his assistant to lower the curtain. He had to be carried back to his dressing room, but he refused to see the doctor. The next morning his wife rushed him to the hospital where he had his already-ruptured appendix removed. On October 31, 1926 with his wife and brother at his side, he died.

Houdini’s Killer Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead was the 31-year-old McGill University medical student who punched Houdini. He was not invited into Houdini’s dressing room, but snuck in, allegedly to return a borrowed book to another McGill student who had been invited to visit Houdini. Whitehead was a very strange and troubled person. He was not charged with Houdini’s death. He died as a recluse and hoarder in 1954, at age 59, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Montreal, Canada. What is the Appendix? When you eat, food passes down your esophagus, into your stomach, through about 20 feet of small intestine, through five feet of large intestine, and then to the outside. The appendix is a small structure shaped like your finger, ranging from one to nine inches long (average length five inches). It is located where the small intestine enters the large intestine. Houdini refused the recommendation of his doctor to have his appendix removed. At that time, doctors had no antibiotics and a ruptured appendix could spread germs through the belly to kill a person.

Today, you want to keep your appendix unless it is at high risk for bursting. Up until a few years ago, doctors thought that the appendix was a worthless organ. They used to remove healthy appendices whenever they did any surgery in the belly. Now we understand that the appendix appears to have an important function in maintaining the colony of healthful bacteria in your intestines. Healthful Bacteria in Your Intestines Help You Absorb Food You have more than a hundred trillion bacteria in your intestines, more bacteria than you have cells in your body. They live in your intestines because every time you eat, you feed these bacteria. They eat the same foods that you do. In return, the bacteria feed you. You cannot absorb food. Before food can get into your bloodstream, it must first be separated into carbohydrates, fats and proteins. However you can not absorb these components either. Carbohydrates must be broken down into single sugars, fats into fatty acids and protein into single and chains of amino acids. If you can‘t break down food into single sugars, fatty acids and chains of amino acids, you can’t absorb them. Your intestines make many of the enzymes that break down foods, but some foods cannot be broken down in your intensities.

The bacteria repay you for giving them a place to live by breaking down some of the unabsorbed foods so you can absorb and use them. If it were not for the bacteria in your intestines, much of the food that you eat would pass right out of your body without being absorbed. Plant-Eating Mammals Have the Largest Appendices We have learned about the beneficial functions of the appendix by looking at different mammals. Mammals that eat the most plants have the largest appendices. Bacteria provide the enzymes necessary to digest plants so that they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. When an animal gets an infection in the intestines, the invading bacteria can replace the good bacteria that help them absorb foods. Having a large appendix provides a large storage area to keep the good bacteria so that they can return to the intestines after the animal’s immunity has controlled the infection. How Your Appendix Helps You and Can Save Your Life Your normal good intestinal bacteria protect you from other harmful bacteria growing in your intestines. If you suffer an infection with bad bacteria, the bad bacteria can replace your good bacteria and make you sick to cause diarrhea and fever. You can also lose the good bacteria when you take antibiotics of any sort.

A leading theory to explain the value of the appendix was proposed by illiam Parker, a surgeon at Duke University. The good bacteria remain in the appendix after you develop diarrhea or have taken an antibiotic and the bad bacteria have replaced them in your intestines. Then, the good bacteria can return to your intestines from the appendix to help you be healthy again (Journal of Theoretical Biology, 21 December 2007; 249(4):826–831). If your appendix has been removed, it will take far longer for the good bacteria to return to grow and live in your intestines. The appendix is also an endocrine organ that makes IGA antibodies that kill germs that invade your intestines. Harry Houdini Dies After Operations Harry Houdini Dies After Operations Special to The New York Times DETROIT, Oct. 31.--Harry Houdini, world famous as a magician, a defier of locks and sealed chests and an exposer of spiritualist frauds, died here this afternoon after a week's struggle for life, in which he underwent two operations. Death was due to peritonitis, which followed the first operation, that for appendicitis.

The second operation was performed last Friday. Like a newly discovered serum, used for the first time in Houdini's case, it was of no avail. The chapter of accidents which ended fatally for the man who so often had seemed to thousands to be cheating the very jaws of death began early in October at Albany, N. Y. On the opening night of his engagement at a theatre there a piece of apparatus used in his "water torture cell" trick was overturned and struck him on the foot. Houdini called a physician from the audience, had his foot examined and then completed his performance. Afterward he went to a hospital and had the injured foot X-rayed. Appendicitis Follows Blow A bone was found to be partly fractured and Houdini was advised to discontinue his tour a few days and give prompt attention and plenty of rest to the injured foot. He declined to cancel his engagements, however, and did not miss a show. From Albany he and his company went to Schenectady. Houdini was suffering continuous pain and returned to Albany for several treatments. By the time he left Schenectady for Montreal his whole system was in a weakened condition. On Tuesday, Oct.

19, while in Montreal he addressed a class of students on spiritualistic tricks. During a reception following the address he commented on the strength of his stomach muscles and their ability to withstand hard blows without injury. One of the students without warning or giving time for Houdini to prepare struck him twice immediately over his appendix. He suffered no distress at the time but after he had boarded a train for Detroit he complained of pain. At first he attributed it to something he had eaten but as it increased he called in the company's nurse, who in turn arranged by wire to have a physician meet the magician in Detroit. Dr. Leo Kretzka, a prominent physician, made a hurried examination and told the patient there were symptoms of appendicitis. He left it to Houdini to decide whether it would be advisable for him to appear that evening at the Garrick Theatre for the opening night of the show. Houdini would not disappoint his admirers. Looking back on that last performance, the large audience now realizes that the famous magician did his tricks under a great strain. He felt the grip of bonds he had never tested, the snap of a lock not forged by human hands.

He was worried for one of the few times in his career and was plainly not up to his best form in some of his tricks. Conscious Until Death At his hotel after the performance the pain increased. The house physician and the best Detroit could furnish were called. Houdini was taken to Gray Hospital and the following afternoon underwent an operation for appendicitis. His removal from the hotel to the hospital was made at the suggestion of his family physician, William Stone of New York City, who had been notified by telephone of his friend's condition. Until his death Houdini was conscious and his mind was keen and alert. The physicians who attended him say he was the best patient they ever had, and he helped them wonderfully. His mental attitude, combined with his unusual stamina, did much to prolong his life. According to statements made by the physicians, the playful punches he received in Montreal were the direct cause of Houdini's death, for one of the blows caused the appendix to burst, saturating his system with poison. Streptococcus peritonitis, which developed soon after the operation last Monday, seriously complicated the case.

This is a particularly virulent form of poisoning, and few cases are known to the medical profession where persons suffering from it have recovered. The body will leave Detroit for New York in a special car Monday evening, arrive in New York Tuesday morning about 9 o'clock. Houdini World Famous No Locks Could Hold Him--Foe of Mediums Whatever the methods by which Harry Houdini deceived a large part of the world for nearly four decades, his career stamped him as one of the greatest showmen of modern times. In his special field of entertainment he stood alone. With a few minor exceptions, he invented all his tricks and illusions, and in certain instances only his four intimate helpers knew the solution. In one or two very important cases Houdini, himself, alone knew the whole secret. Houdini was born on March 24, 1874. His name originally was Eric Weiss and he was the son of a rabbi. He did not take the name Harry Houdini until he had been a performer for many years. Legend has it that he opened his first lock when he wanted a piece of pie in the kitchen closet.

It is certain that when scarcely more than a baby he showed skill as an acrobat and contortionist, and both these talents helped his start in the show business and his later development as an "escape king." Joined Circus at 9 At the age of 9 Houdini joined a traveling circus, touring Wisconsin as a contortionist and trapeze performer. The Davenport brothers were then famous, doing the first spiritualist work ever seen in this country. They would ring bells while bound inside a cabinet and would agree to free themselves from any bonds. This inspired Houdini to a somewhat similar performance. Standing in the middle of the ring, he would invite any one to tie him with ropes and would then free himself inside the cabinet. In the ring at Coffeyville, Kan., a Sheriff tied him and then produced a pair of handcuffs with the taunt: "If I put these on you, you'll never get loose." Houdini, still only a boy, told him to go ahead. After a much longer stay in the cabinet than usual, the performer emerged, carrying the handcuffs in his free hands. That was the beginning of his long series of escapes from every known sort of manacle.

For years he called himself the Handcuff King, a title discarded as he extended and elevated the range of his performances. From 1885 to 1900 he played all over the United States, in museums, music halls, circuses, and medicine shows, gradually improving his technique and giving up his purely contortionistic and acrobatic feats. In 1900 he made his first visit abroad, and in London his sensational escapes from handcuffs at Scotland Yard won him a six months engagement at the Alhambra. This was the first instance of his cleverly obtaining notoriety by a public or semi-public exhibition outside the theatre. No other showman, unless it was Barnum, knew better how to arouse the curiosity and amazement of the public in this manner. Escaped From Dozens of Prisons During a six-year tour of the Continent he escaped from dozens of famous prisons. In the Krupp plant at Essen he met the challenge of the workmen and freed himself from expertly constructed shackles before 70,000 persons. He returned to America to find his fame greatly increased and a newly organized vaudeville ready to pay him many times his old salary.

He continued his prison escapes over here and in January, 1902, broke from Cell 2 in the Federal prison at Washington, the cell in which Guiteau, President Garfield's assassin, had been confined. In 1908 Houdini dropped the handcuff tricks for more dangerous and dramatic escapes, including one from an air-tight galvanized vessel, filled with water, locked in an iron- bound chest. And he would free himself from the so-called torture cell, his own invention. In this he was suspended, head down, in a tank of water. To thrill the general public he would hang from the roof of a skyscraper, bound in a strait-jacket, from which he would wriggle free to the applause of the crowd in the street below. Thrown from a boat or bridge into a river, bound hand and foot and locked and nailed in a box, doomed to certain death by drowning or suffocation, he would emerge in a minute or so, a free man, swimming vigorously to safety. In the last twenty years Houdini made many long tours, playing in nearly every important city in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Occasionally others would attempt to imitate him, but his supremacy never was remotely threatened. An evidence of the deep impression his work made on the public mind is the fact that the Standard Dictionary now contains a verb, "houdinize," meaning "to release or extricate oneself (from confinement, bonds, or the like), as by wriggling out." A slang dictionary probably would list the expression, "do a Houdini," with a similar meaning. Owned Valuable Library During the last few years Houdini had become internationally known as a tireless enemy and exposer of fraudulent mediums and all false claims in the field of spiritualism. He was a member of The Scientific American committee that investigated Margery, the Boston medium, whom he denounced in vigorous language. He was the author of "Spooks and Spiritualism," "The Unmasking of Robert Houdin," "Handcuff Secrets," and "Rope Ties and Escapes." At his home, 278 West 113th Street, he possessed a remarkable library, chiefly devoted to works on the theatre, to magic and the black arts.

The collection has been valued at $500,000 and was insured for $350,000. Most of it has been willed to the National Museum at Washington. In July, 1926, Houdini was elected for the ninth successive time President of the Society of American Magicians. He also was President of the Magicians' Club of London and a life member of the Authors' Club of London. He married in 1894 Wilhelmina Rahner of Brooklyn. He was a member of St. Cecile Lodge No. 568, F. & A. M. Bizarre Experiences Told by Houdini Tricked Roosevelt on River of Doubt--Had Four "Close-Ups With Death" Few men could relate more interesting anecdotes and experiences than Harry Houdini. He was fond of telling how he beguiled the late Theodore Roosevelt and the late Victor Herbert on a voyage to Europe aboard the Imperator. Colonel Roosevelt had just returned from his exploration of the River of Doubt in Brazil. "I was asked to give an entertainment," Houdini would relate, "and the subject of spirit writing came up.

A number of other well-known men were present, all of them having intelligence of a high order. Certainly it was not a credulous audience. I offered to summon the spirits and have them answer any questions that might be asked. "Roosevelt wanted to know if they could tell him where he had spent Christmas Day. I had a slate with the usual covering and in a few moments brought forth a map, done in a dozen different colors of chalk, which indicated the spot where he had been on the famous River of Doubt. That map was an exact duplicate of one that was to appear in his book which had not been published. I had never seen the map and, to make my case stronger, the name of W. T. Stead, the English spiritualist and writer who lost his life on the Titanic, was signed below the map in a handwriting which one man present instantly recognized as that of Stead. And I might add that I was unfamiliar with Stead's signature. Colonel Roosevelt Dumfounded "'Is it really spirit writing?' he asked. "'Yes,' I replied with a wink." Of course, Houdini never explained how the trick was done, at least to the public.

The magician tried his hand at the medium business in his early days in Kansas and used to tell in this wise how he prepared for one of his first seances: "I had gone around to the cemeteries and read all of the inscriptions on tombstones, looked over a few birth and death records and acquired a lot of information from the gossips. When the time arrived for my act I puzzled the crowd by giving particulars of births and deaths in half of the families of the town. Gradually I worked up to a climax, exclaiming: "'Now what do I see? What is this coming before me? Why, it is a man--a black man. He's lame--and his throat is cut from ear to ear. Who is this man?--why, I know him; he is Efram--Efram Alexander.' The negroes at the meeting deserted in a body with shrieks because they recognized a negro who had been killed recently." For thirty-three years Houdini tried to solve the mysteries of spiritism. He told friends he was ready to believe, was anxious to believe, because he would find joy in proof that he could communicate with his father, mother and friends who had passed on.

He had agreed with friends and acquaintances, numbering hundreds, that the first to die was to try to communicate from the spirit world to the world of reality. Fourteen of those friends had died, but none had ever given a sign, he said. Anxious for Spirit Messages "One of those pledges," Houdini once told, "was with my secretary, John W. Sargent, one of those who exposed Palladino in this city. Our relations were most intimate. He died and I have not heard from him. Such an agreement I made with both my parents. They died and I have not heard from them. I thought once I saw my mother in a vision, but I now believe it was imagination. "Another thing that seemed almost supernatural to me occurred at the death of William Berol, a mystifier and close friend of mine. We had worked together on the stage and had a private telegraphic code for signaling messages. We made a compact that the first who died should use that code to communicate with the other. At his deathbed I held Berol's hand. He had been unconscious for some time. He showed no outward signs of a return to consciousness. His eyes remained closed.

But just as he passed away I could feel his hand making a faint pressure upon mine. That was repeated at intervals and I could recognize that the man who seemed unconscious and at death's door was talking to me in code. I received and understood his message. But I hold it sacred and have never repeated it." Houdini counted that he had had "four close-ups with death" in his career of more than thirty years as a mystifier. The closest was in California, where he risked his life on a bet and not as a public performance. Seven years ago in Los Angeles he made a wager that he could free himself from a six-foot grave into which he was to be buried after being manacled. He had first accustomed himself to the sensation of burial by more shallow interments. Scare Nearly Cost Life "The knowledge that I was six feet under the sod gave me the first thrill of horror I had ever experienced," Houdini was wont to say in telling of his hair-raising escape. "The momentary scare, the irretrievable mistake of all daredevils, nearly cost me my life, for it caused me to waste a fraction of breath when every fraction was needed to pull through.

I had kept the sand loose about my body so that I could work dexterously. I did. But as I clawed and kneed the earth my strength began to fail. Then I made another mistake. I yelled. Or, at least, I attempted to, and the last remnants of my self-possession left me. Then instinct stepped in to the rescue. With my last reserve strength I fought through, more sand than air entering my nostrils. The sunlight came like a blinding blessing, and my friends about the grave said that, chalky pale and wild-eyed as I was, I presented a perfect imitation of a dead man rising. "The next time I am buried it will not be alive if I can help it." But Houdini did later permit himself to be "buried alive" in a hermetically sealed casket of zinc which was submerged in a pool at a New York hotel. He remained there for more than an hour and a half, bettering the record of the Egyptian fakir, Rahmin Bey.

When there was talk of a "return" submergence contest between the magician and the fakir, Houdini made preparations to defend his title with all the care that he was wont to exercise in working up his baffling feats. He began to cancel engagements that conflicted with a period of training he mapped out for himself. "I can't dine with you this afternoon at 6 o'clock because I have to go down at 5," said Houdini to a friend. Houdini went "down" or submerged in his sealed casket for half an hour daily. Friends of the showman said yesterday that he had developed a dislike for being called by his first name, Harry. He always wished to be called Houdini and disliked the prefix, Mr. Ruptured Appendix - TV Tropes Ruptured Appendix You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share YMMV When writers want to add a little drama but don't want to spend a lot of time building up symptoms and later dealing with recovery, they'll dust off this old chestnut: The Burst Appendix.

What makes appendicitis great for writers is that it can affect an otherwise completely healthy character with little or no advance warning, a sort of Sickness Ex Machina if you will, and instantly creates a sense of ticking-time-bomb tension as the character must get the appendix removed before it explodes! The situation also takes delightfully little time to fix: Rush your character through some emergency surgery, spend a few seconds admiring the cool, new scar, and that's it; roll credits. As a fairly common and thus well known condition, Appendicitis / Ruptured Appendix also falls under Small Reference Pools . Tonsillitis , and occasionally Gall Stones, can get similar treatment. Gall stones also add some drama in that they are less dangerous, but have extremely similar symptoms to the appendicitis, and thus add suspense due to the need to distinguish them. (If you have severe stomach pain in the lower right side or that started there and spreadnote It tends to vary from person to person. Sometimes, it actually starts as a pressing pain on the left side, while the right is only sensitive under pressure . You never know until a specialist checks. , go to an emergency room.

DO NOT take an enema or laxative or otherwise try to force a bowel movement - the pressure/stimulation of bowel contractions can cause the appendix to rupture. Also, have the surgery, because while it may give you a scar [which will be quite small if they use an endoscope] and may result in some occasional bowel issues later in life due to the appendix hosting beneficial bacteria, both of those can be easily dealt with - and the surgery is the only absolute cure that ensures the condition won't worsen and kill you, or return if cured via antibiotics or other nonsurgical treatment) Advocates point to the lower instances of appendicitis in areas of the world with squat toilets compared to those with sitting toilets. Examples open/close all folders Anime and Manga A culprit in an early episode of Detective Conan had a son who died of appendicitis, and tried to kill the surgeon's son as revenge. When this is explained, Mouri immediately asks how it's even possible to die of appendicitis in this day and age, and the surgeon explained he wasn't able to save the kid because it was too late when the father brought him in.

Film Kara no Kyoukai has an excellent example: The main villain of the third movie, Fujino Asagami, has a severe case of appendicitis, which leads her to believe she'd been stabbed. (It's complicated.) By the end of the episode, her condition has worsened to a point where even immediate attention is pointless; she's vomiting blood and barely able to crawl. And that's before we mention the killer chasing her, or the repeated rapes she endured previously. It ends comparably well for her, when Ryougi Shiki (who can literally kill anything) kills the appendicitis inside Fujino with her powers and saves her life. Fanfic In My Little Unicorn , this is why Fluttershy has a Sick Episode and is nearly killed by a changeling in the hospital, even though ponies don't have appendixes . John Gage's appendix ruptures before Roy and the ambulance can get him to Rampart in the Emergency! fic " A Big Deal '' A few other writers have done this as well, the medical nature of the show makes it an attractive storyline.

In Kill la Kill AU , we have this with Satsuki in comic 35 and this marks her as an Ill Girl , as stress had done a number on her health to that degree. She turns out okay Literature House of the Scorpion : In El Patron's backstory, one of his siblings died from this, since his family couldn't afford a doctor. Madeline had this happen in her first book, and the scene was also included in the movie adaptation, the 50s animated adaptation, and the first animated special. Some of her dolls even include the scar from the surgery. Happens in Epic : Eric gets appendicitis and has to drop out of the competition to move up to the next grade level. Doc Leroy, one of the characters in J.T. Edson 's Floating Outfit series of western novels, once saved the life of a cowhand with a burst appendix by operating on him with a Bowie knife. There was a Baby-Sitters Club special where Kristy was stuck in the hospital with appendicitis. In Stephen King 's The Stand , after the superflu wipes out most of humanity, one of the survivors dies of appendicitis, because there are no doctors left around.

Stu tries to remove it, only to have the patient die partway through the operation. Then the guy's wife commits suicide afterward. Robert Merle 's novel Malevil has a similar situation. The few survivors of a nuclear holocaust lose the protagonist when he eventually dies of appendicitis. Teenage Worrier 's Worry Files has Letty's brother being rushed to hospital with appendicitis for the drama factor. The Hunt for Red October : Due to drunkenness while on duty, a surgeon botched removing an inflamed appendix from the wife of Marko Ramius, the organ bursting because the doctor took too long to try to sober up by breathing pure oxygen.note The wife's death at the hands of a doctor that couldn't be punished because he was the son of a senior Party official is what drives Captain Ramius to defect. In one of John Bellairs 's Lewis Barnavelt novels , while Mrs. Zimmerman and Rose Rita are driving home, Mrs. Zimmerman is overcome with a crippling pain in her stomach.

She believes it's her appendix, which leads to Rose Rita remembering how a classmate of hers died after mistaking appendicitis for a bad stomachache and didn't seek treatment until it was too late. When Mrs. Zimmerman gets to the hospital, it's revealed that the pain was too high to have been her appendix. Mrs. Zimmerman tells Rose Rita that she suspects it was actually the effects of a dark magic curse someone used on her. Lu Clarke has one in Cherry Ames: Mountaineer Nurse by Julie Tatham. Since she's in a remote valley, she barely makes it to the hospital in time. The mother has one in Sydney Taylor's All of a Kind Family Uptown and recovers. In George R. Stewart's 1949 novel Earth Abides Isherwood Williams, who has survived a global plague and is one of the few survivors on Earth, makes a list of positive things that may indicate his survival. One of them is the fact that he has already had his appendix out, so he doesn't have to worry about this.

In one of the Jonathan Cap books by Francois Rivier, the local Plucky Girl Juliette nearly develops this and she's sent to a luxurious private clinic for treatment. It almost happens for real when she, Jonathan, Alex and Nico are investigating the clinic at her request; she tries to help out Jonathan when he's forcibly given sleeping drugs, but she near collapses in pain. Thankfully her appendix remains in one piece and she recovers. Live Action TV In one episode, Hawkeye drugged a colonel and made him think he had acute appendicitis , conducting an unnecessary surgery. BJ refused to go along with it . In "White Gold," Hawkeye and Trapper both pull this on Colonel Flagg, who wants to make off with the camp's penicillin inventory. In "The Long John Flap", Col. Blake is wearing the titular long underwear, and Hawkeye and Trapper threaten him, when suddenly Blake reacts as though punched. Turns out it's his appendix rupturing, and they have to operate immediately. The entire camp is mildly happy to hear that Blake's appendix was successfully and safely removed...

but overjoyed at hearing that they didn't have to cut him out of the long underwear to do so, and so the long underwear was intact. Major Houlihan is mentioned in one episode to have chronic appendix flare-ups, and that she'll be fine and doesn't need surgery as long as she takes a brief break from performing surgeries until it calms down. She intends to eventually get it removed in the city, but just in case, she requests that Hawkeye be the one to operate if necessary despite Frank Burns usually being the surgeon to perform minor operationsnote As a result of Burns' sexual dry spell following Houlihan breaking up with him, he can't keep examinations professional and repeatedly tries to grope and neck with her when he tries. This in addition to a short but noticeable string of minor operation mistakes. Of course , it becomes necessary to remove the appendix, and while she can't get to Tokyo or even Seoul, Hawkeye removes the appendix with little problem beyond Burns attempting to horn in on the operation. A later episode has Hawkeye performing an appendectomy on a singer with a USO troupe.

He spends the rest of the two-episode story dissuading the obvious crush she develops on him, thinking a sweet young woman like her deserves a more honorable man in her life than Hawkeye . In the Sweet 16 episode of Life With Derek , Casey comes down with appendicitis. On her sixteenth birthday. Doogie Howser, M.D. : 16-year-old Doogie rushes his appendicitis-stricken girlfriend, Wanda to the ER straight from their Drive-In Theater date. He proceeds to diagnose her (via pelvic exam!) and assist in the operation himself. Trouble ensues because he didn't have time to properly ask for the required authorization from her parents (Wanda is 16 and a minor as well), and they're not happy. (Wanda herself is mostly embarrassed that Doogie saw her naked , and she gets better). On I Dream of Jeannie , Jeannie blinks Tony into a doctor just as Roger gets wheeled into the hospital for an appendectomy. On Lost , Jack, the survivors' team doctor, had to have his appendix removed while on the island.

Daniel has very little to do in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Nemesis", as he's recovering from an emergency appendectomy. This was because Michael Shanks was recovering from an appendectomy himself . Happened on an episode of Laverne and Shirley ; Shirley gets appendicitis while in costume rehearsing for their " Alice in Wonderland " play. In the final season of All in the Family , 10-year-old Stephanie comes down with appendicitis on her birthday. ER did an episode where Dr. Benton had to have his appendix removed, and Carter (much to his delight) was assigned to operate on him. On Night Court during the story arc where Dan, an Army Reservist, gets activated and sent to Alaska. A local Eskimo woman has to have her appendix removed and since he accidentally caused the local doctor to injure both of his hands, Dan must perform the procedure, with the doctor talking him through it. This occurred in an episode of Full House with Uncle Jesse, coincidentally while he was in the hospital while his twins were being born.

Also occurred in Family Matters , in the episode "Number One With a Bullet" where Steve Urkel collapses in the middle of the Winslows' floor from this. In the Quantum Leap episode "Ghost Ship", Sam leaps into a pilot who must safely guide a plane out of the Bermuda Triangle and save one of the passengers from dying of appendicitis. Unusually for this trope, her appendix actually bursts, but Sam is able to use his medical knowledge to provide supportive care until they reach a hospital. In the second season of Malcolm in the Middle , Malcolm goes to hospital with what's assumed to be appendicitis. Ultimately turned on its' head as the diagnosis proves to be wrong. In the episode of Scrubs entitled "My Day Off" J.D. develops appendicitis and has to experience the hospital from a patient's point of view. In the Taiwanese Series Devil Beside You , Ahmon goes onstage after the lead guitarist goes down with appendicitis. He then gets to guitar suggestively in front of his love interest. CSI had a variation of this, the serial killer Dr.Jekyll, who implanted a guy with a diseased appendix. Naturally, it killed the guy later.

In Australian children's TV adaptation of The Saddle Club , Lisa (one of the three central characters) is alone on horseback when she's overcome by the pain of Appendicitis and collapses on the trail. In Series 2 of Warehouse 13 , the Team Medic (in the persona of the original Bionic Woman ) answers Artie's call for a second appendectomy — he claims that being around all the artifacts made it grow back. Turns out he was using P.T. Barnum's spinning-top, which can "grow" multiple arms, legs, etc., to regrow it: he had taken a shine to the woman. She has to make a call somewhere else, and doesn't get around to removing it. When it gets bad, Artie has to go to the town vet. In The Big Valley, Audra contracted appendicitis on the titular "last train to the fair." In the Land of the Giants episode "The Creed", Barry got appendicitis. F Troop : Happens to Chief Wild Eagle in "Miss Parmenter"; the men of F-Troop must operate on him, with Captain Parmenter's sister serving as an assistant.

Colton Cumbie was removed from Survivor One World with symptoms that mirrored appendicitis. (To which Kat asked where it was ) However, during his appearance on Blood vs. Water, Probst reveals that Colton might not have actually had it, and even accused Colton of faking it! April quickly develops appendicitis after an embarrassing argument with Luke in Gilmore Girls . Luke has to call Lorelai, who's recently married Chris, for advice when April is clutching her side. Lorelai comes to the hospital afterward, and it's what makes Luke realize exactly how much he screwed up by driving her away. The Punky Brewster episode "Ouch" has Punky suffering from appendicitis. The thought of being operated on frightens her to tears, and she hides out in a hospital closet. Betty (Cherie's grandmother) finds her and persuades her to have the operation done. A Diff'rent Strokes episode had Arnold develop appendicitis and is too scared to the doctor until he meets a girl who is having a similar operation (her tonsils) and would be sharing a room together in the hospital.

But when the girl's father decides against it after finding out Arnold is black, Arnold and the girl run away and the families have to search for them before Arnold's appendix bursts. Bright Abbot has this happen in the first season of Everwood , but it's not sudden and immediate; he's shown having stomach pains at the beginning of the episode but goes to his grandmother's birthday party anyway. Andy and Harold realize the appendix is inflamed and it only bursts when Bright tries to get up. Andy ends up removing it himself in his office, and Bright recovers. Theater In Our Town , Wally Webb is Killed Off for Real by a ruptured appendix. Video Games Trauma Center : New Blood has the player character racing against time to remove an infected appendix before it bursts. Afterwards, they immediately operate on another patient whose appendix had just burst. Mega Man Battle Network : In the second game, the player can come across a sick passenger in an airport complaining about his stomach. Later in the game, you can run into him, and he'll mention that he had appendicitis. Web Original Survival of the Fittest : Not one but two different characters (specifically R.J.

Lowe and Helen Wilson) have died of appendicitis in version four. In Dead Ends the abundance of zombies prevents Winny, Will's wife, from getting the operation that could have saved her. It is quite the Tear Jerker . Western Animation On The Simpsons , Dr. Hibbert performed an emergency appendectomy on the street, then threw the appendix away as if it were a live grenade. It even exploded like a grenade. Another when Bart gets a stomach ache after accidentally eating a jagged metal toy from the Krusty cereal. He's sent to the hospital which it turns out to be appendicitis. An episode of Garfield and Friends had Jon suffer from appendicitis, though Garfield's obsession with a video game didn't help him at all... but between the antics of Odie and the noise from Garfield playing the video game , they managed to alert the paramedics in time. Happened on Rocko's Modern Life in the episode "Tickled Pinky". Before the procedure, Rocko has a dream in which his appendix is a little kid whom he consoles with a trip to the fair (and other, increasingly silly last requests) before he's taken out.

Near the end of the final season of As Told by Ginger , shortly after her breakup with Darren, Ginger is left feeling as if her "insides exploded". It's discovered that the pain she's been experiencing isn't solely because of the breakup, but is in fact due to acute Appendicitis. She's rushed to the hospital for an emergency Appendectomy. In an episode of The Wild Thornberrys that takes place in Australia, Eliza has the misfortune of not only developing Appendicitis on Valentine's Day, but also that the commvee and mini-comm are immobile. It's a possible life or death situation as Nigel overcomes various obstacles to get her to a hospital. Happens to Hector on one Ozzy and Drix episode. Real Life This trope is Truth in Television - and it's actually quite common that almost everyone has at least heard of appendicitis or an appendix injury. Harry Houdini died of a ruptured appendix, which may or may not have been exacerbated by someone punching him in the stomach a few days earlier—one theory is that he may have attributed the early symptoms of appendicitis to pain from the blow, and did not seek help as soon as he would have otherwise.

Leonid Rogozov, a Russian doctor, got appendicitis. While on an expedition in Antarctica. Where he was the only doctor. So he operated on himself. This led to a policy of preemptively removing the appendix of critical staff members (with their consent) before any trip to the base. James Roday from Psych , was hospitalized with appendicitis and had to have it removed just prior to his scheduled appearance on WWE Raw . He recovered and was even able to make a literal phoned in appearance during the episode, albeit highly medicated and somewhat loopy. Buck Tick vocalist Atsushi Sakurai developed abdominal peritonitis from a Ruptured Appendix while in Nepal, and was diagnosed as potentially terminal. He demanded to be sent home to Japan to die, and somehow, against all odds, recovered once he was back in Japan, becoming one of the very, very few people to survive a ruptured appendix and subsequent peritonitis. Masaki Koh, a gay adult video star, developed appendicitis but refused surgery for several reasons (including appearance and that his condition was so advanced that the surgery itself could have ruptured the appendix) and instead chose nonsurgical treatment with antibiotics and the like.

Unfortunately, his appendix ruptured, and he would later die from abdominal peritonitis. Ringo Starr , drummer of the The Beatles , nearly died at age six from peritonitis; he missed a year of school while recovering and remained sickly for most of his childhood as a result. It was his constant illnesses and inability to catch up academically that played a big role in him turning to music. Happened to Lets Player Roahm Mythril around Thanksgiving time. Thankfully, he made it to the hospital quickly and made a full recovery. :: Indexes ::

Question: Who died of a burst appendix after being punched in the stomach?
Answer: Harry Houdini