RECOVERY HOPES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 11

RECOVERY HOPES.

MAN m IRON LUNG.

CONDITION IMPROVES.

FATHER IS OPTIMISTIC.

Improvement in the condition of ] Frederick B. Snite, jun., of Chicago, 1 who was stricken with infantile para- ' lysis in China 25 months ago, so that ' he is able to breathe naturally for 23 < minutes has given rise to hopes of his eventual recovery, said a recent message from Miami to the "Chicago Tribune." Ten months ago physicians said Snite could not live more than five minutes outside an iron lung. Since Snite was brought to the family's winter home at Miami last October the original 10001b lung In which he was brought back to the United States from Peking, China, has been supplanted for daytime use by an aluminium and rubber respirator that weighs only 171b and permits Snite to be kept at a sitting position for several hours at a time. Only Snite's thorax muscles are paralysed. Recent examination showed his lungs and heart unimpaired by the long illness, and attendants say they know no reason why his nerve trunks eventually will not be restored completely. Attendants make no predictions, however, preferring to let results speak for his condition. "I hope that by next year Frederick will be able to kick a hole in the respira-l tor," his father, Frederick B. Snite, sen.,l said recently to 400 quests assembled at ' the Snite home for a party on the second anniversary of young Snite's confinement in the respirator. Now More Cheerful. The patient, too. has been more cheeri fill since he began u*ing the light s respirator. Being able to sit in a chair I for several hours has broadened his . mental horizon as well as improved hifc physical condition. JJs? ef thr» ntrnt

device permits attendants to maßsage his arms and legs more freely to stave off muscle atrophy. The small respirator consists of an aluminium shell fitted to the patient's body and lined with moulded rubber, graduated in hardness to sponge rubber that forms an airtight seal, necessary to make the vacuum that expands and contracts the patient's lungs. A similar device, made of wood, and weighing 301b, also hag been used successfully. An arrangement of mirrors attached to the big iron lung which encloses the patient's body permits Snite to read and play games, with his attendants. At the recent party Snite watched a series of boxing matches, and spoke to his guests through a microphone. He told them about his two-year confinement, and expressed the belief that he would be restored to normal health. Snite was taken back to Chicago in the first week in June to remain there until next winter. His iron lung

was operated by batteries on the trip from hia home to the railroad station, where he was placed aboard a private car, especially equipped for the trip to Chicago. Snite, who is 27 years old, is an experienced traveller, having been taken 9300 miles Lv truck, train and ship from Peking to Chicago last summer. Then he made the 1500-mile trip to Miami without incident. Snite was on a world cruise when stricken by infantile paralysis in Peking. That he lived to return was because the only iron lung in China was in Peking, and he was placed in it without loss of time.