NEWSBOY'S SELF-SACRIFICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15169, 7 December 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEWSBOY'S SELF-SACRIFICE.

HIS LIFE TO SAVE EIGHTEEN-YEAR-

OLD GIRL.

'"I .AM glad I did it." Those were the last words of William Ruch, a crippled newsboy of Gary, Indiana, who sacrificed his useless leg in order to supply skin to save the life of Miss Ethel Smith, an eighteen-year-old girl, who had been badly burned in a motor-cycle accident. Ruch was impelled to part with his limb by an announcement in the newspapers that " Unless some heroic person could bo induced to part with enough cuticle to make up for that which had been burned Miss Smith must die." Ruch and Miss Smith were placed on adjoining tables in the local hospital, and 150 square inches of skin was transferred from the boy's leg, after which it was amputated. Before the operation Ruch was told that in making the sacrifice he would risk death, but he said he was quite willing to run the risk. The operation saved Miss Smith's life, and she is nearly well, but on Monday Ruch died from the shock of the amputation. Miss Smith has been prostrated by the news of the boy's death. The surgeon who performed . the operation has received hundreds of letters denouncing him for the act from all over the country.