Auck. man has had hiccups for 4½ years

Press, 8 January 1980, Page 9

Auck. man has had hiccups for 4½ years

PA Auckland Albert Parker, aged 71. has sucked ice, sugar, and breathed into bags, but even a few good frights have not stopped his hiccups, which started 4j years ago.

The New Lynn man says his marathon bout of hiccups is ruining his social life. “I can’t even take the (hie) wife to the pictures. I tried once but (hie) I made a lot of noise,” he said. The hiccups result from emphysema and a hernia — ‘‘they seem to act against each other” — and a cure has so far kept several doctors pondering.

“Sometimes they’ll stop for a few days, even a couple of weeks, but they always come back,” said Mr Parker.

On a bad day, Mr Parker reckons, you can hear hime coming 20 metres away. The hiccups, several a minute at times, continue during his sleep. ■ “It’s terrible when I go on the bus. I always try to sit by the window but the noise keeps coming,” he said.

He also has to eat small meals.

So far, apart from all the traditional cures, Mr Parker’s hiccups have taken him to hospital twice and he is due to go back next week for another attempt at relief.

His best efforts to stop have come from a 25cm length of electrical wire. He pdkes the wire through his nostril and down his windpipe to agitate his breathing. "It sometimes works but not always,” he said. "Doctors say my hiccups make my lungs sound like those of a man who’s just run two miles. They’re wearing me to a frazzle. I just don’t know when they’ll stop.”

Mr Parker’s attack is not the worst on record. According to the “Guinness Book of Records.” Charles Osborne, now aged 86 of lowa,, the United States, started hiccuping when killing pigs in 1922 and he is still going strong.

Mr Parker’s hiccups are also not the world’s loudest. In March, 1979, an Englishman is reputed to have suffered hiccups which could be heard a mile away.