CRUSHED IN A COAL MINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13227, 12 July 1906, Page 7

CRUSHED IN A COAL MINE.

WILLIAM LONSDALE'S FATE. . PARALYSED OVER TWO YEARS. ... LEFT HOSPITAL A CRIPPLE. .13 MONTHS ON CRUTCHES. DR.*WILLIAMS' PINK PILLS,NOW HARD AT WORK AGAIN. '■ Ir it hadn't been 'for Dr. Williams-' Pink Fills for Palo'-People I would have gone : down -to my grave a cripple. All the doctors in the Melbourne Hospital admit that, —and vou will admit it yourself,'when you hear the facts of my case," 'said William Lonsdale, who is now Underground Manager in the Anvil Creek Colliery, West Maitland. Newcastle district. Mr. Lonsdale, is a brother of -George Lonsdale, Esq., LP-, 3. Carlisle-street. Leichhardt Sydney. .Hem now living ( '*ith his son, James Lonsdale, or Weston, near West Maitland. " I was very nearly crushed to death -by a fall of three . tons 'of coal in Outtrim Mine. I was all torn and mangled when they dragged me out. My hip bones were broken, a great holo was* torn in my back. ' Big pieces of rock were buried in my flesh, and all my insides were crushed.. For ten weeks I lay in Melbourne Hospital, and then the doctors gave me up. For a whole year 1 never, moved off my back. .*For the next eighteen months I dragged myself about a few yards every day on crutchesbut I' was paralysed: from my waist down, without a hope of ever walking another step. Then I started to take Dr." Williams' Pink Pills, and inside of three months. I bad thrown away, my crutches and gone back to work' in the mine. It is a downright miracle. D.. Williams' Pink Pills raised mo up from a paralytic, to a strong, healthy man. " It was back in 1901 that I met with the accident that nearly) killed me,", said Mr. Lonsdale. "It was* the last day of August and I was working in a gallery" that was just three feet high. I was stooping, down : with my hammer well over my shoulder, ready to strike. All of a sudden three tons of stone came crashing down on me like thunder. The timber props broke the fall— and they were tho only thing that saved me from being crushed to a jelly. Four of my mates rushed up, but they couldn't budge the rock that had buried, mo. It took ten men to free, me, working like, niggers with crowbars. When they got me. ■ out some of the, men turned sick at the, sight. I was covered with blood, and there was a great gaping Ifole where my hammer ■ had been, driven into my back. The. rock • ripped my shoulders open as clean as if. they had been done with a carving knife. My left eye was nearly gouged out. My. whole body was one mass of battered flesh, . and blood. My mates started to carry, me. up the tunnel on a stretcherbut I begged them, for God's sake, to put mo down in 'oil© of the safety cuttings at the side of the tunnel. I only wanted to bo left there to, , : dic. '"■ .' ..',,..... "But, nc— they carried me'home to my' horrified wife. A few minutes later the doctor arrived. By. that time the loss of blood had left me too weak to speak. When the doctor went over me he found that my hip bones were fractured. All my insides 'were crushed. There were dull gnawing pains round my waist right down to my groin. The wound in my back went deep down into my loins. Great pieces of stone were driven away into my flesh—but 1 was in such a low state that the doctors didn't dare to take them out then .and there. My life was just hanging by a thread. They said themselves, that there wasn't, the slightest chance of me living the week out. But the lodge doctor-fought'like-'a Trojan to save.me. - For six. weeks he came to see mo night and day. . In spite of all bis rare/ I did not rally. He saw that I was sinking, and ordered me straight to the Melbourne Hospital. ~*--- "Never shall I. forget' thai., journey. At the Station I was carried out on a stretcher, to the ambulance, and driven to the Hospital. , There they put me under the X-rays —and the doctors said. at once that.there wasn't one atom of hope for me.., All They could do was to case my pain. They kept sticking syringes into my arm and injecting Morphia. After that I would go off into a heavy sleep— but ...I. always suffered worse when I woke up. ] had enough Morphia to kill six bullocks. '"' My hair turned grey in, those few weeks. My wounds had to be washed and dressed three times a day. The hammer wound in my back was six inches across, and it- had to be plugged with a great lump of cotton wool, soaked in Carbolic. For six weeks the ' contents of my bladder had to be drawn off through a tub» and it- was nothing but black blood. A thin piece of fractured bone an inch long had worked its way down and blocked my bowel. The agony I went through was awful. When the bone came away there was a great rush of blood, and after that I had a little relief. But, in spite of everything, I kwt sinking- slowly. The. Hos- ; pital doctors said my case was hopeless. • " I lay there on my back in the Hospital for ton long weeks. When they saw I was past the help of medicine the Hospital doctors wanted to send me to the Home'for Incurables, where I could spend the last few weeks of my life. But I made up my mind to go back home, where I could die with all my family around me. After reaching home I lay for twelve months on the flat of ray back, with an air pillow', like a lifebuoy, under me to keep the gaping- wound in my back up off the bed. I didn't have the strength of a now-born'child. The only parts 1 could move was my head and my hands. I had to be fed with a spoon. BarIcy water was all I wcould take. My shin ■bones, were like knife blades, and my ribs were nearly coming .through my skin. 1 was practically paralysed. My feet were stone-cold and numb. Bjd sores broke out all over my back and hips. I lay. in the one position week after week, Braving for Death. After twelve months-on my back I was just able to put my feci to the ground and struggle along a few steps on crutches'." .Mr. Lonsdale went on to say. '"The crutches were hung from my shoulders with .straps. Every step racked' .me with pain from head to foot. . I used to sit by the window and watch the people going by, saying to myself—' Will I ever walk ,like you?" All this time, for over thirty months, I drew sick pay from the Colliery' Accident. Fund. I was worn down to sst 10lb. All the lower part of my body was numb and dead. I was absolutely paralysedand I would be paralysed to this day if it hadn't been for Dr. Williams' Pink Pills. "My mates came to see me every day and my case was known to everybody in the country for miles around. One day an old farmer came to see mo. When I. told him I was paralysed for life ho told me how Dr. Williams' Pink Pills had put men like me on their feet again, after the best doctors had given them up for as good as dead. I sent straight to Gleeson's local store and got a good supply. The first box didn't do me an "atom of good. When I was on the third box, however, my appetite picked up, and I started to pull' myself together. After that every box of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills did me more good. In time they healed up all my insides, and gave back life to my paralysed muscles. At last I was able to throw away my crutches, and walk as firm and steady as ever. Since then, I have grafted at the hardest work down in the pit aud am able to do more than many men of half my age. There's not a .single trace of' my accident left— cept the scars, and I shall carry them to my grave. To my dying day I shall never stop telling everyone what Dr. Williams' Pink Pills did for me. Mv cure is an absolute miracle." Remember, Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People actually make new blood—nothing more. £ hey don't act on the bowels. No other medicine can strike at the- root of disease like they do. They have cured the worst eases of liver trouble, indigestion, neuralgia, rheumatism, sciatica, and general weakness in New Zealand. Sold by all chemists and storekeepers, and by the Dr. Williams' Medicine Co.. Wellington—os a •box: six boxes 16s 6d, post free.