Dr. Moore Russell Fletcher in “Suspended Animation and the Danger of Burying Alive,” p. 62, writes:—
“‘Seven hours in a coffin added ten years to my life,’ was the remark of Martin Strong, of Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, some time after quitting the coffin in which his family had placed him for burial, after Dr. Cummings had given a certificate of his death. Frank Stoop, of Clarinda, Iowa, was laid out for burial not long since, a physician having certified to his death; but fortunately he awoke from his state of coma in time to save his life.”
AN ARMY SURGEON’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
DR. CHEW’S EXPERIENCES.
Dr. R. G. S. Chew, of Calcutta, writing to the author, says:—“In 1873 I was a student in the Bishop’s High School, Poonah (Bombay Presidency), where I used to be generally at the head of my class, and when competing for the Science Prizes I was fully determined to take the first prize or none. The Reverend—— Watson, Rector of St. Mary’s Church and Chaplain to our school, knew my disposition, and cautioned me against being too sanguine, lest disappointment might tell very keenly. The disappointment came, and with it much nervous excitability. Shortly after this (Christmas, 1873) my favourite sister was seized with convulsions that carried her off. From the moment of her decease to nearly a month after her interment I entirely lost the power of speech. On the day of the funeral I was parched with thirst, but could not drink, as the water seemed to choke me. My eyes were burning and my head felt like bursting, but I could neither sob nor cry. I felt quite dazed, and followed the procession to the cemetery, where I stood motionless by the open grave; but as soon as they lowered the little coffin into its resting-place I threw myself headlong into the grave and fainted away. Some one pulled me out and carried me home, where I lay in a sort of stupor for nine days, during which Dr. Donaldson attended me most patiently, and I regained consciousness, but was too weak to even sit up in bed. On the 16th January, 1874, I felt a peculiar sensation as of something filling up my throat—no swelling, no pain nor anything that pointed to throat affection—and this getting worse and worse, in spite of everything, I died, as was supposed, on the 18th of January, 1874, and was laid out for burial, as the most careful examination failed to show the slightest traces of life. I had been in this state for twenty hours, and in another three hours would have been closed up for ever, when my eldest sister, who was leaning over the head of my coffin crying over me, declared she saw my lips move. The friends who had come to take their last look at me tried to persuade her it was only fancy, but, as she persisted, Dr. Donaldson was sent for to convince her that I was really dead. For some unexplained reason he had me taken out of the coffin and examined very carefully from head to foot. Noticing a peculiar, soft fluctuating swelling at the base of my neck, just where the clavicles meet the sternum, he went to his brougham, came back with his case of instruments, and, before any one could stop him or ask what he was going to do, laid open the tumour and plunged in a tracheotomy tube, when a quantity of pus escaped, and, releasing the pressure on the carotids and thyroid, was followed by a rush of blood and some movement on my part that startled the doctor. Restoratives were used, and I was slowly nursed back to life; but the tracheotomy tube (I still carry the scar) was not finally removed till September, 1875.”
“APPARENT DEATH FROM A FALL.
(Communicated to the author by Dr. Chew.)
“A sowar—i.e., native trooper—of the 7th regiment of cavalry, in 1878, carrying despatches at Nowshera, was thrown from his horse, and, falling with his head against a sharp stone in the road, rolled on to his back, in which position he was found some six or seven hours after, and conveyed to the morgue of the European Depôt Hospital pending removal to the ‘lines’ of his own corps.APPARENT DEATH FROM A FALL. There was very little hæmorrhage, and the stone was still wedged in between the temporo-parietal suture. Cardiac sounds and respiratory murmurs could not be detected. The limbs were perfectly rigid, and there was a good deal of cadaveric ecchymosis to be distinctly seen. Nothing would have convinced any one that the sowar was still alive, and Surgeons-Major Hunter, Gibson, and Briggs, Apothecary S. Pollock, Assistant-Surgeon J. Lewis and myself verily believed he was stone-dead. As ‘cause of death’ is what the army is exceedingly particular about, Surgeon-Major Hunter removed the impacted stone and lifted out portions of the fractured bone (prior to holding a proper post-mortem), when to the surprise of all of us ‘the corpse’ deliberately closed its eyes (which were staring open when the body was first brought in), and there was a slight serous hæmorrhage. On noticing this, the sowar’s head was trephined—no chloroform or other anæsthetic being used—some more fragments of bone and a large blood-clot that pressed on the brain were removed, and as the sowar repeatedly flinched under this operation, a stimulant was poured down his throat, and he was removed to his regimental hospital, from which he was discharged ‘well’ some six months and a half later. After this he did good service in the Afghan and Egyptian campaigns.”
“APPARENT DEATH FROM CHOLERA.
“The cases of collapse and apparent death during epidemics of cholera are very numerous, as will be seen by reference to medical literature. We have now before us particulars of cases from the Calcutta Journal of Medicine for 1869, vol. ii., p. 383, where Dr. Charles Londe, of Paris, observes that patients pronounced dead of cholera have been repeatedly seen to move. See also, for Italy, Lancet, 1884, vol. ii., p. 655.