Page 18 Advertisements Column 1

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 18

A CASE <M WHICH SEVEN SPECIALISTS FAILED, NINE MONTHS' AGONY IN THE MELBOURNE HOSPITAL. JDR'WILLIAMS'S PINK PILLS FOR PALE PEOPLE TO THE RE -CUE. j (From the Melbourne Advocate.) ! Dave Kirk, .the tvell-kaowu and h'ghly- ' popular hero of the cjple track, was on the Bth October of last year "training in the Scotch College grounds, Melbourne, when all of a sudden, and without any warning, the tyro of the leader broke, and 'becoming at once entangled in the wheel, brought the rider to the ground with terrific force. So great was tbe impact that not a single limb t>r member of the unfortunate cyclist's frame escaped serious injury. In all haste tho victim wss removed to -the Mel- > bourne Hospital, more dead than alive and * quite unconscious -from shock and .hemorrhage. .A hasty examination of the. patient by tbe medical stuff of that institution showed them that tbe case was a most serious one, and the grave .lcoks of the surgeocs in attendance plainly indicated that they entertained but^the ' slightest Lopes of the uufottunate young man's r recovery. All that the resources of that fullyplentshed hospital could command were brought into play for the relief of the patient, but the gravest fears were felt as to his ultimate safety. Tbe external injuries were not, after all, the - most serious — the symptoms of serious internal injury to "the nervous system were air too patent to the practised and expert eye of the medical faculty. So serious, indeed, was the cas-e of Dave Kirk considered that an eminent surgeon who called to sec the patient declared it as .his opinion that the patient would, in all probability, never rise from- his sick bed. There poor Dave lay, betwixt life and death, for about seven weary and exceedingly trying months of pain and suffering, unable to stir hand or foot, unable to move even from side to side — a viotim of hemorrhage, spinal pleurisy, dysentery, complete paralysis of the body, and last, but by no means least, loeomotor ataxy — a fearful complaint, which utterly prostrates the human frame and destroys the power of> the ' will ' so much'so that the common functions of ' nature are performed by a power absolutely extraneous to the will. An idea of the dreadful injuries sustained by the patient may- be gathered from the following details gleaned from Kirk by our representative. His left heel had .to be removed, and .32 stitches were inserted in that part of bia foot, 18 being - placed in the light leg. The kneecap was smashed, -and had "to be lifted Altogether jseven surgeons bad to do with the sufferer, who was reduced to a very weak and almost comatose state after nine operations had been performed on him. Mortification eet in in parts of the lower limbs, and artificial means had to be employed to draw off the urine. The system was washed internally fonr times every day with water and carbolic acid, the stomach be,ing cleaned out by means of a tube. Injections were also largely employed. This was a most singular case, and ose which must have afforded ample play for the physicians' iikill -and experiment, yet it remained for Dr Williams' Pink Pills to effect a radical and complete cure.