THIRTEEN YEARS IN BED

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1929, Page 8

THIRTEEN YEARS IN BED

A MEDICAL MYSTERY. SYDNEY, November 21. Unable to move any part of his body but his head, Percy Winsome Harburgh, of Sydney, has lain in bed for 13 years. He cannot even feed himself. His case provides a medical mystery. During the big smallpox scare in Sydney, in 1913 Harburgh was vaccinated. Due it is said to the operation of the germ in the vaccine, he slowly became paralysed, until at the end of three years he was helpless. He was then placed in bed, and he has hardly 'been moved from it since, except on to a bed chair in his airy bedroom. His body twitches at night and he has to be strapped to his bed in order to prevent him from falling out. It is explained that the vaccine had affected the spine, the marrow in which had gradually been eaten away. The germ was slowly climbing the spine.

Harburgh is a pathetic figure, as the pain he goes through is dreadful. “I suffei' awful agony,” he gasped, when he was seen by a reporter. “I am never free from pain, and if I did not have so many friends I do not know how I would bear it.”

Up to the present time more than £2OOO has been spent in an endeavour to effect a cure, but all to no avail. A specialist is now treating Harburgh free of charge, and it remains to be seen whether he will succeed where so many other doctors have failed. In the circumstances the patience of the sufferer is remarkable, and it is not the least remarkable feature of this strange case. Doctors are unable to cure the disease, and they are also unable to account for the great fortitude and courage displayed by the sufferer. They marvel that he has not been a victim to exhaustion, if not to the dreadful disease from which he alone in all the world appears to be suffering. Harburgh always smiles when he has visitors, and he has many.

Perhaps it is tlie enormous courage of his wife that gives him heart. She has stood by Irer husband for the last 13 years, and has seldom left his bedside. “She has been great,” said Harburgh. “How she has helped me!” Mrs Harburgh declared that doctors were scarce during the outbreak, and the . help of students had to be obtained. She claims that it was a student who vaccinated her husband. “■When his-arm began to swell,” she explained,, “we rang the Department, but we were told that we would have to call in outside medicdl' help. ‘Students have to learn , and practical experience is the best,’ we were told.” Every year sufficient money is obtained by those interested in the case to keep the couple, and the annual Christmas appeal is now meeting with its usual ready response. Mr and Mrs Harburgh are always assured of a welcome Christmas box, !