BLOODLESS SURGERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 23, 17 June 1914, Page 7

BLOODLESS SURGERY.

CRIPPLE HANOI'S A TANGO. Everyone is now aware of the wonders that Mr. Barker, the "bloodless piiirgeon," performs, but an instance mis recently occurred that seems quite miraculous., comments the London Express. By siiwplc manipulation, Mr. Barker lias straightened tilie bent -backbone of a man who for nearly three .vein's wm never able, to 'lie down and sleep, and who was declared incurable by thirteen doctors.

It was on March 23, 1911, that Mr. William i.idgw.iy, juar., a native of Newport Pagnell, was working as a carpenter on a building at Luton, when the scaffolding eollaWd. and he fell twenty feet to the ground. lie was picked up and taken to the Luton Hospital with an injured isiiine. He was kept in the hospital for a week, and afterwards came to a London hospital, where for seven months he was an out-patient. At that time lie could only hobble, along slowly with the aid of a stick. "I could not lie down at alt on my back," Mr. Ridgway told an Express representative, "and I was never able to I lie down and sleep. I used to lie on my right side for a few minutes at a I time; thonl had to get up and walk. |- The only sleep I had for nearly three years was while sitting in a chair. T. used to doze off for a few minutes. Then the pain woke me and I had to get up and hobble about before I could sit down again. I suffered agony during nearly three years. "I was examined at tllie hospital and was G-rayed. They gave me things to i ease the pain, but they told me they could not cure me. and that an operation would do no good. Two of the doctors there—l was under four doctors altogether at the hospital—said I would never do another day's work. "Altogether thirteen doctors saw me I during, the three years, and none of t'li-em was able to do anything to cure i me. "At the beginning of this year I was | persuaded to' try Mr. Barker, of Park [Lane. I went to see him on January r 12 a hopeless cripple. He examined me | and said my spine was dislocated and [-that a rib was misplaced. I was surprised when he said he coiild cure me. I did not believe he could.

"Mr. Barker 'operated' on me in a few minutes. It hurt a good deal for he had to get the bones back in 'their proper places. But lie did it. "An hour after he had done it I got up and Walked off comfortably to Eustace station, without needing my sticfe. That was a. coupie of miles or more. I went home, and everyone was amazed. "You can see I am all right still," Mr. Ridgway said, laughingly, as he Bkipped about in a kind of tango, "and I am fit for work again, as I have recovered my iitrtngth. "Instead of crawling like a cripple I can walk as well as ever, and I am a walking proof of the wonderful effects of Mr. Barker's 'Bloodless surgery.' "I am sure they will read of my cure with pleasure at the great railway works at Wolvcrton. where I was carpentering for some time."