PARSON’S BROKEN NECK

Shannon News, 10 August 1926, Page 2

PARSON’S BROKEN NECK

RESULT OF MOTOR ACCIDENT. LIVES FOR FOUR DAYS. Mi- Taylor, a clergyman of West-on-super-Mare, aged 65, was run down by -a car while cycling recent--fy. He had a bad fall, but declarer he was unhurt, and vent at once by train' to Beckenham, a journey of 140 miles. That was on Friday.'He died in tlie' following Tuesday. It was not until then that it was found that his neck had been dislocated by ( the fall. He had, .in fact , been preaching and .performing his duties 1 with a broken neck. This case recalls that of Joseph Tomlinson, a collier, who, in March, 1906, was buried by a roof fall in a pit. He was taken to hospital, but the doctors failed to find serious injury and he he walked home. Next day he was paralysed and taken back to hospital, but, in about a month he was discharged “cured.” Five years later, in 1911, an X-ray photograph revealed the fact that the poor man’s spine had been fractured, and he was' awarded compensation for permanent incapacity.

' Equally amazing was the vitality of a painter named Gardner, of South Hackney, who was run down by a cyclist. He was ill for a, time, but. recovered, though he often complained of headache. Eighteen months later he became very ill and died. Then, and not till then, it was found that he had been living aii this time with his skull frac- 1 tured from side to side, and that a , part of it was loose. A Catford bank Clerk who liad sustained concussion of the-, brain while bathing in Idie sea, became obsessed with the fear that he would, never again be able to do his work. While in this state of mind he shot himself, putting two bullets in- his head. One was extracted and the other remained embedded 4in. in the brain. Yet, when later on he was charged with attempted suicide, lie was apparently • in the best of health. -

The pluck shown by a labourer called Jenkinson mails that of the clergyman Avhose case lias been recorded. Riding on .a bicycle from Norman Cross to Peterborough, he had a terrible fall, breaking his collarbone and fracturing his skull. He remounted his bicycle and rode tho rest of tho way to Peterborough, before becoming unconscious and dying.

A man over GO, /& night watchman, Avas run over by a locomotive, at Queen’s Road, Battersea. Nearly .sill his ribs Avcre broken and his right foot terribly crushed, yet, in spite of his dreadful injuries, lie picked himself up, walked some ( dis-. tanco along the line, descended 16 steps of a ladder and reached his hut. Four hours later he was found there still alive by a policeman. One of the pluckiest things done in the Great War is also a tribute to man’s poAA'er of physical endur-, anee. A French airman flying 'at 9000 feet Avas struck by a German shell, which tore off his* left foot. In spite of his aw ful wound he went on to liis destination, dropped his bombs, then flew home to his aerodrome, a distance of 27 miles.