A Battered Warrior.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12796, 30 September 1905, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Battered Warrior.

THK " I.UCKIKST MAX AUVK. The Gormanston cfire-pradcm of the Zcehan ** Herald" tell* an extraordinaJT stoty of past accident* to the victim of a recent Lyell mishap:— _ Mr Tom H. Wei's, who in at present in the Mount I.vc'l casualty trird, Uil up for repairs as the malt of -<n aceidot »B*diced oa the Mount I.yd! Cotupany's hstil=ge. Corel? has an maiy lives u the proverbial family est. Wnrking t.n lie Hrighton-Apsloy line year* -ipo. Wells was smothered up in a lot of foci; wlm.li Wtw out of a face that misted observation. There were two msn at the tame on either side of hta. One 'Martin Casey) was kOlfd. and another, named Ruoceil. vety badly in. jured. Wells was much knocked aboal. Coming to the We*t Cflirt. Well# rmathed one of hi* arms on the Strahan-Zeehan line, and again was completer covered by a fall of gravel down the side of one of'tba cuttings. Thinking all was ever with him. but yet with a feverish anxiety end kind of vague hop# to extricate him, one oi " Tom's" mates seized a pick to dig him out, and in the operation struck Well* ski heavily on the head that the pick point went neatly through the skull. Hi* mart serious accident was at Montezuma Falls, near Mount Head. Through a blasting accident, Wells had his skull actually split open, in addition to haviug three dinicct holes blown in it. He was also at the timo Ytry badly burnt by the powder which exploded. ij> bis arms and sbonldu* wi3] show till bis dying day. .Changing the scene, " Tom" came to* Mount l.yell, and when working in the open cut was blown, as the result of another blasting operation, off ose bench on to another, 37ft beneath, in additfcn to being carried several feet into the <ir. On that occasion, his skull was again badly fractured, and a large stono was embedded in bis forehead. over the left eye. His sku'l had to be »awn open in the frontal portion to permit of the slone being extricated. At the swae time his lsft arm was bared to the bone, much of the flesh being blown away, and all the sinews severed. He also 'sustained injuries to the legs and knee*. Later on a bolster of coal escaped on the haulage, and running to the bottom at a spied that can oniy be described as appalling, crashed into Wells. On ibat occasion the injuries which he sustained aroounted to two broken rib* on the right side, besides being bad'y bruised fiom shoulder to feet. Again, en the haulage, four full trucks broke away from the top, and "Tom" wa* at the bottom to receive tliem. "The ttonble was a bit serious this time,"' i» tbe way Lc explains it. Kvtry lib on his left Vide was smashed, and one of them just pricked ! the lung. His right elbow was also smashed, and the fle«h and muscle of the arm torn from the elbow to tbe shoulder. In addition, his right ank'e was badly injured, the flesh being "jagged" off iC and seven severe acd painful sca'p wounds made up the total for that day. Besides the for* going. Wells has sustained a wonderful variety of minor injuries, and every finger on either hand his been at one time or another broken. His escape* from accidents would trouble one's counting, and notwithstanding evciything, he is sprightly and even gay. He is a native of -JlriiStoa, Tasmania, acd certainly presents a unique study from a medical and scientific point of view. His vitality mott be abnormal, notwithstanding that he put in over two years in the Hobart Hospital, under heatment for internal abscesses which weie »e----moved alter vety critical surgical operators. "Tom" hopes to be out of hosphaj shortly to " have another look at it." moaning work, and certainly if "the boys"" ever meet him in civilisation they will murk a ticket with bhn. for sureJy" be is the luckiest fellow above ground."