WITH A BROKEN NECK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 312, 24 March 1928, Page 13

WITH A BROKEN NECK

ENERGETIC HOSPITAL PATIENT Now washing 1 the pots and pans at the Sydney Hospital is a patient who has cheated death three times. Petty Officer Humphrys has earned the appellation of “Sydney Hospital’s wonder patient.” On Christmas Eve he smashed nearly every bone in his body through falling over the banisters from the third storey of a Hotel to the ground floor. When admitted to the hospital he was given three hours to live. His ironlike constitution defied death, for on rising from his bed six weeks later he felt fit enough to “jump over the moon.” But before returning to his ship, the Geranium, he was given a final X-.ray, and 10, and behold! he was found to be actually alive with a broken neck! Back to bed he was sent, and on rising again he challenged anybody in No. 1 ward to a stand-up fight. He told the sister in charge that he had the neck freedom of a giraffe. That’s not all. During the war a shell put a four-inch hole in his left leg, and it was thought amputation would be necessary. Grafting, however, was resorted to, and Humphrys said that although he had the bones of another man in his left leg, he would be ready to swing it about in a 60-houtrs’ non-stop dance. “i J U never ’he added*