A Miracle if ever there was One.

Manawatu Herald, 28 October 1897, Page 3

A Miracle if ever there was One.

DAVE KIRK. AN EX-MELBOURNE CBACK BICYCLIST, LEWES THE HOSPITAL TO DIE. SEVEN SPECIALISTS PRONOUNCED HIS CASE INCURABLE. TERRIBLE RESULT OP A PALL AT THE SCOTCH COLLEGE GROUNDS A YEAR AGO. PARALYSIS. HEMORRHAGF, SPINAL DISEASE, AND LOCOMOTOR JLTAXIA. NINE MONTHS AGONY IN THE MELBOURNE HOSPITAL. MOW A. HIALTHYi ACTIVE MAN. THANKS TO DR. WILLIAMS' PINK PILLS. (From the Melbourne Advocate.) Dave Kirk, the well-known and highlypopular hero of the cyole track, was, on the Bth October of last year, training in the Scotch College Grounds, Melbourne, when, all of a sudden, and without any warning, the tire of the leader broke, and becoming at once entangled in the wheel, brought tbe rider to the ground with terrific foroe. So great was the impact that not a single limb or member of the unfortunate cyclist's frame escaped serious injury. In all haste the victim was removed to the Melbourne Hospital, more dead than alive, and quite unconscious from shock and hemorrhage. A hasty examination of the patient by the medical staff of that institution showed them that the case was a most serious one, and the grave looks of the surgeons in attendance plainly indicated that they entertained but the slightest hopes of the unfortunate young man's recovery. All that the resources of that fully-plenished hospital oonld command were brought into pay for the relief of the patient, but the gravest fear 3 were felt as to his ultimate safety. The external injuries were not, after all, the most serious— the symptoms I Of serious internal injury to the nervous ' 8 /stem were all too patent to the practised bid expert eye of the medical faculty. So B'rious, indeed, was the case of Dave Kirk O msidered, that an eminent Burgeon who Oilled to see the pati°nt declared it as his Opinion that the patient would, ia all probability, never rise from his sick bed. There poor Dave lay, betwixt life and death, for about seven weary and exceedingly trying months of pain and suffering, Unable to stir hand or foot, unable to move eren from side to side — a victim of hemorrhage, spinal disease, pleurisy, dysentery, Complete paralysis of the body, and last, bit by no means lea«t, locomotor ataxy, a fearful complaint, which utterly prostrates the human frame and destroys the power of the will ; so much so that the common functions of nature are performed by a power absolutely extraneous to the will. Ah idea of the dreadful injuries sustained by the patient may be gathered from the following details gleaned from Kirk by our representative: His left keel had to be t;moved, and 32 stitches were inserted in that part of his foot, 18 being placed in the right leg. The kneecap was smashed, Rid had to be lifted. Altogether seven B irgeons had to do with the sufferer, who ytxt reduced to a very weak and almost omatose state after nine operations had baen performed on him. Mortification gei ia in parts of the lower limbs, and artificial means had to be employed to draw off the nrine. The system was washed internally four times every day with water and Oirbolio acid, the stomach being cleaned Oit by means of a tube. Injections were a'so largely employed. This was a most 8 ngular case, and one whioh must have » lorded ample play for the physicians 1 Brill and experiment, yet it remained for Dr Williams' Pink Pills to effect a radical a id complete cure.