A SPINAL MARVEL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 259, 25 July 1908, Page 10

A SPINAL MARVEL.

LIVED EIGHT MONTHS'WITH A BROKEN NECK. The London 1 City, Coroner on July 11 investigated tho death of Bertie Edward Cook, a young • waiter in tho service , of; Messrs. Spiors and Pond, : Ltd.,. at a restaurant in Tokenhouse Yard, City, who was fatally injured in a hydraulic lift. •It appeared that on October 25, 1907, the deceased was told..to..tako a letter from; tho basement to tho restaurant. Instead of:going up the staircase, ho got into thb service lift, which,was forbidden, and as 110 told 0110 of the witnesses, hearing tho manager's -voice, ho attempted to. hurriedly leave tho cage, when , ho was caught between it and tho edge of 'the ■ shaft. . ■ Dr.' Russell Lang, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, spoko to admitting the deceased nearly eight months ago, when it was found that his spinal; cord -was ' seyored - two inches below the brain. Curiously enough, there had been a dislocation.of tho spino, but tho bones had gone back into position. Tho Coroner: Hew cpuld he live if his spinal cord was severed?—lt turns,on whether he could, breathe or not, and he'could breatho by his diaphragm. Death was duo to blood -poisoning, the result of a bedsore, which, of course, was due to the accident.

The Coroner: It is rather an extraordinary case; have you ever had a similar 0110?— I havo not seen ono personally, but I beliovo patients so injured-do live.

The jury; returned a verdict of "Accidental death."