SECRET TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 47, 18 November 1933, Page 18

SECRET TRAGEDY

And a Miracle of Surgery

A secret tragedy which threatened to cloud the life of a famous artist has been averted by the combined skill of twelve of Britain’s cleverest doctors. The, artist is Mr. C. R. W. Nevinson. Last summer his medical advisers took such a grave view of his case that they advised him to make his will and settle up his affairs. , - “You see in me a living miracle of modern British surgery,” he told the “Sunday Chronicle.” “To face life again aftet preparing for death is an extraordinary experience. “A year ago I fell ill with an abscess on the lung, peritonitis and all sorts of complications. Altogether I suffered a series of five serious bouts of illness and one operation. But it was not until a final X-ray examination was made that it was discovered that I had an extremely rare internal complaint.

“I did not make the recovery my doctors had hoped for, and at last one of the specialists who had my case in hand was forced to tell me that there was no hope of a certain operation on which we had been relying being successful. “On the day I was told this I went into my studio and painted one of the

best pictures I have produced for years.

“Then I made my will, settled up my business affairs—the papers are all properly, filed in this cabinet —and even wrote my own obituary. • After that I sat down to wait for death.

“You see, I did not mind the thought of death at all. Artists, in my opin-' ion, should leave the world when they become 45 or 50. An aged artist is a piteous sight. “Perhaps it was because my heart was at rest, my nerves quiet, perhaps thp combined, skill of those wonderful doctors inevitably had some effect, but after a week or two I began to feel better.

“The attacks of agony became legs frequent. Now I have been more than a month without an attack at all. and I am told that with constant care and treatment I shall defeat the death that was stalking me. “But I have a few more years of work before mo. and for that I am glad. “I would like to pay a tribute to the miraculous skill and knowledge of our modei’n doctors. Thanks to them. I am facing life again.”