DREAM CAUSES TRAGEDY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 256, 26 September 1933, Page 2

DREAM CAUSES TRAGEDY

FALL RE-ENACTED IN SLEEP

LUCKY ESCAPE THE FIRST TIME

A remarkable story of a Dane who, in a nightmare, went through the experiences of a previous fall, and was found dead below his window the next morning, was told at a St. Paneras (London) inquest on Svend Funck Jorgensen, 39, a clerk, of Broadhurst Gardens, Hampstead, N.AV. The coroner, Mr W. Bentley Purchase, in recording a verdict of accidental death, said he considered that, during sleep, Jorgensen reenacted the events of the previous few hours and fell out of the window while in an unconscious or somnambulistic condition. Miss Gwendoline May Brown, ol Goldliurst Avenue, Hampstead, a friend, said she was executrix under Jorgensen’s will. His affairs were in order. He had no debts and had marvellous health. He had just returned from a holiday in Denmark. Mrs Elizabeth Jones, at whose house Jorgensen stayed, said that on Tuesday he borrowed some steps to clean his wireless aerial from a small balcony outside his room. She heard a crash and found that he had fallen. He was taken to hospital. “He came back in a taxicab a short while afterwards,” she said. “AVe were surprised to see him. He paid for the taxi and walked up the steps with the nurse. He said, ‘I expect 1 shall be stiff in the morning.’ “At 6.15 next morning I found that he was not in bed. I looked out of his window and saw him lying below in his night clothes.’’ He had insisted that no one should stay with him during the night. 12FT. OF BROKEN RAILINGS. Constable Courtney said after the fall from the steps he found Jorgensen lying semi-conscious in an area 30ft. below his window. In his fall he had broken 12ft. of cast-iron railings. Dr. Rutter, of St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, said that when Jorgensen was brought to the hospital by ambulance he was quite conscious. He was a little excited, but not “shocked” at all. He had not sustained injury and was sent home in a taxicab with a nurse.

Replying to the coroner, who asked whether the fact of the second fall which proved fatal could be associated with the first fall, Dr. Rutter said there might have been some cerebral irritation. He had heard of cases where persons after having experienced a severe blow on the head might lose their memory or experience nightmares. The Coroner: He had had a lucky escape to fall 30ft and not injure himself?—Yes, very lucky. Dr. Hewer, divisional surgeon, said that in his second fall Jorgensen fractured his skull, his jaw and his ribs.

The coroner asked Dr. Hewer if he had any hypothesis. Dr. Hewer: I think it was a postconcussion condition and he would possibly, go through the fall again. He could dream the condition again for he would know where his window was.

The coroner said that it was quite possible Jorgensen had lived over again the events of the previous few hours.