DOCTORS’ DILEMMA
VAIN ATTEMPTS AT X-RAY FIFTY-STONE WOMAN Rec. 11.45 p.m' NEW YORK, Oct. 31. Doctors in Joliet, Illinois, attempted vainly, to-dey to discover whether a woman weighing 50 stone had suffered a fractured hip when she fell out of bed. X-rays could not penetrate her flesh to photograph her bones. The woman is Mrs Elizabeth Ebner, a widow, who has been bedridden for 20 years with elephantaisis. The police said Mrs Ebner frequently fell out of the specially constructed bed and they regarded it as routine when they were summoned to lift her back last night. A doctor told them, however, that he feared she had broken a hip and would have to go to hospital. Eight policemen, after great efforts, moved her to the front door then found the police ambulance would be too small to carry her. The police commissioner then summoned an undertaker who sent a hearse.
Ten more police were called to lift Mrs Ebner into the vehicle. When the hearse reached the hospital five attendants helped put the woman on two beds placed side by side, but the beds collapsed. Mrs Ebner was finally placed on a specially constructed fracture bed. Doctors will try for more x-rays to-morrow.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 26606, 31 October 1947, Page 5
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204DOCTORS’ DILEMMA Otago Daily Times, Issue 26606, 31 October 1947, Page 5
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