AMAZING FORTITUDE

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9045, 17 May 1915, Page 4

AMAZING FORTITUDE

INJURED MAN'S STRUGGLE CRAWLS A MILE WITH SHATTERED LIMBS. Picas Association, WAIHI, May 15. Tho W r aimata bush, five miles froiK W’aihi, was the scene of a terrible acci* dent to-day. The victim, Charles Luch wig, had driven his cart and horse t<j the busli track, and had gone further in on foot to fell trees. Ho had puli a scarf in one of the trees, and luu? charged a couple of holes with gclig* nite on the opposite side, and hud light* ed the attached fuses, when unexpectu odly one of the charges exploded. Lud* wig appears to have received the full force of the explosion, and sustained terrible wounds from his head to his feet. Amongst his wounds was a doubl* fracture, of his right leg below the knee, and his second and'third fingers and the thumb of his right hand worn broken; he had deep gashes on his fore* head and right cheek, and his left oyfl was almost completely destroyed. His arms and the front part of his body* were also badly bruised and cut. Re* covering somewhat from the immediate effect of his wounds he crawled oa shuffled along on the rough, broken! ground till he came to his tethered horse. Here he secured a strap, and getting hold of. some sticks ho bound/ them to his broken leg, thus providing; some kind of splint which partially, kept the protruding splintered bone i*i its place. He then started to shuffla backwards in the direction of the opeis country. Tho accident happened about noon, and Ludwig was not found till 3 o’clock. Meanwhile lie had struggled painfully out of the busli and gamed the open track; havmg covered in four hours a distance of a mile. The loss of blood had been enormous', and ihe man was in a state of collapse. Ho waa ultimately conveyed on a bod of fern in a trap to *the Waihi hospital., *.