A HUMAN PINCUSHION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

A HUMAN PINCUSHION.

The strange tragedy of a human pincushion has for months been puzzling the most experienced surgeons of New York. The doctors at the Bellevue Hospital have been taking needles out of the body of Mrs. Mollie Dressier' ever since September 30 last. ■ --."; : -" :'~:. '- - - '

. The knife,, the magnet, the X-ray—all have been used. Over twenty needles'have already been removed from her body in various places. There are anywhere from thirty to fifty more needles inside of her in every part of her body. One is perilously near the heart. Over six months ago Mrs. Dressier, who had had family troubles, swallowed between seventy-five and a hundred needles all at the same time. ' "' ■.'"■ She was taken to Fordham Hospital hysterical and screaming with pain, and has been hysterical ever since. ■ Mrs. Dressier woull not tell the doctors anything about herself, though she was in frightful agony. Then, after weeks of diagnosis, they discovered "that she was veritably full of needles. A series of operations were performed, the incisions of the doctors' knives resulting in the discovery of fifteen needles. Still Mrs. Dressier was in agony. Then followed another operation and the extraction of four more needles. -, - Mrs. Dressier was transferred to Belle-; vue Hospital, and Was about to be discharged as cured, when the pain returned. More needles were extricated at the rate of one or two a day. - Then the X-rays disclosed the needle near the heart. It can't be done!" was the decision of the surgeons who -were called upon to look into the case. "If we operate wo might injure the heart with our instruments." So now they are trying to ;: take r the needles out of- this human pincushion with the aid- of a magnet such as is used to get metal bodies out of the eye. Mrs. Dressier refuses to divulge her reason for swallowing the needles—it is ; a mystery. ' ,j