MAN WITH BROKEN SPINE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2681, 10 January 1924, Page 3

MAN WITH BROKEN SPINE

LIVES FOR 43 YEARS,

A resident of Olncy, England. Mr John Aldridge, has lived for 43 years with a broken spine. By all accepted medical standards he should have died within a few months of I lie accident which broke his bade. or_ else he lying completely paralysed. Instead lie is the father of ten children, six of whom are alive. They are lit and well. He himself has worked for 37 years at. hoot making and stopped work only four years ago.

11c i.-, now 5(5 years old, and his hoard and his hair are turning grey. His injury has given him a “hump” in the middle of his back, and he walks slowly with the aid of a stick. He is terribly emaneiated. Mr Aldridge has lived a life, of non-stop agony.

“I have uever been free from pain for the last 43 years,” he said. “All the time that I was working at my bench T was in pain. T stuck to it. however, and only had to give up because T foil down at my bench, and had to be carried home. “The accident occurred when 1 was 13. T fell off the hack of a wagon onto which T was climbing. The horses started and I was crushed between the wheel and the wagon.

“When T left Northampton Hospital, the doe lor said to my mother, “Take care of your hoy. lie is one of the wonders of ihe world.” Mr Aldridge was examined recently at Bedford Hospital, and the doctor exclaimed: “You are lucky to be, alive.” His spinal cord was not severed. hut the spine itself was fractured. He says that it knitted itself together to a certain extent.