BOY IMPALED ON SPIKE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 20 November 1924, Page 7

BOY IMPALED ON SPIKE.

SAVED BY SURGICAL FEAT. Within twenty-four hours of having a big iron spike weighing 41b removed frpin between heart and lung,, both of which organs it had displaced, Edgar Heath, a. Hajiworth, Middlesex, boy of 15, sinilod at a reporter and s&id, “I i'eel happj' here,'thank you.” H© was af the West London Hospital-. Edgar fallen from the high porch of his home, Flower Cottage, Main Road, Hanworth, and been impaled on a garden railing spike. The head of the railing snapped, and the boy fell to the ground. Half an inch of the spike protruded from his body. The surgeons made a space through which to extract the iron by forcing two ribs apart. They were themselves amazed when they had the object before them. It was 9£in long and the tip was blunt. Its shape very roughly resembled the Prince of Wales’ feathers. The side “feather” dipped over in such a way that it held as tightly as if it were a massive two-pronged fish-hook. It was 4Jin across at the point where the ‘ £ feathers” dipped over, and the thickness of the metal was l£in. In its course the spike had carried into the hoy’s chest and pressed against the lung a piece of shirt fabric as big as a fair-sized handkerchief. The operation was one that called alike for great surgical skill and for bravery on the part of the patient.