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Show Debutante Ldita Armour Living Aoruiment to -Turcica! icien.ee IGAMENTUMTEKES ISCHIAL i SPINE TRANS VERSE Wdyyf' LIGAMENT V P RETIHACOUi I ( v CAPSULE OP JOINT DIVIDED AND THROWN OUTWARDS. A Diagram of tKe Normal Hip Joint Showing How the Ball of the Femur or Upper Leg Bone Fits Into the Socket of the Pelvis. Diagram Illustrating What Happens in the Case of Congenital Hip Discolation from Which Miss Armour, When Little, Suffered. The Ball of the Hip Joint Is Twisted Aside, Causing the Leg to f Hang Uselessly from the Side as Shown i . in the Outline on the Right. By the " - Lorenz Method Used on Miss Armour, the Ball Was Twisted Around Until It Set in the Socket, and Was Held in fr, Place by Casts Until the Position Be came Fixed. THE announcement made just before Christmas that during the holiday holi-day season Miss Lolita Armour's social debut would be made at a ball signalizing that event caused many who read It to renew their "belief in fairies." They remembered as multitudes of adults all over the world remember that, as a child, about the last thing Lolita Armour could look forward to would be to appear as the central figure et a social occasion with dancing monopolizing the programme. Up to a dozen years ago a ball given In her honor would have been an illustration illus-tration of wanton cruelty. Lolita Armour Ar-mour only daughter and heiress of J. Ogden Armour, the Chicago multimillionaire, multi-millionaire, was born to unbounded riches, with a birthright to every material ma-terial thing calculated to promote a giri's happiness throughout life. But before she had drawn her second breath in this world her "Bad Fairy" was upon- the scene, upsetting everything. Soon it was discovered that the child had been born with dislocated hips. The "ball" of that most Important "universal Joint" of the body had never been joined to its "socket" and was held away from its proper anatomical position by false ligaments which caused both limbs to dangle limp and useless. It was small comfort to her parents that one of the displaced joints yielded to surgical treatment; treat-ment; with one leg still dangling hopelessly, hope-lessly, her fate was that of a cripple just the same. Despite all the consideration and luxury that her parents' wealth and position assured as-sured her, little Lolita could look forward to nothing but a life of suffering helplessness. helpless-ness. Little Lolita was doted upon by her parents. Money meant nothing to them and they spent It with a lavish hand on U anything that would tend to alleviate Lolita's suffering. They built a home for her as large and as luxurious as the ordinary or-dinary child only reads about in fairy stories. It costs upwards of $3,000,000. But little Lolita couldn't really enjoy her huge estate. They had to wheel her around constantly in a rolling-chair. Then, suddenly, little Lolita's "Fairy Godfather" came upon the scene. And to bim is due her unexpected, blessed privilege of dancing with the merriest at her own coming-out ball. This was in 1902 when Lolita Armour had lived six years of her crippled existence. ex-istence. At that time the newspapers were spreading broadcast the fame of Dr. Adolph Lorenz. of Vienna, and his system sys-tem of "bloodless surgery," which was reported to lie especially efficacious in cases of congenital dislocation of the hip joint, like Lolita Armour's. Detailed descriptions of the "bloodless" "blood-less" method were cabled to the American Amer-ican newspapers. Grasping at every straw of hope, Lolita's parents caused these reports to be investigated. They proved to be true. It appeared that Dr. Lorenz was a powerful man, with sensitive sensi-tive hands from which no anatomical secret could hide. With his sensitive, powerful hands he manipulated the dangling dang-ling limb, stretching and tearing apart the false ligaments which held the ball ' of the joint away from its socket and finally brining them together in their j normal position. How This' Pretty Heiress Owes Her Present Happiness to the Skill and Knowledge of Her Real "Fairy Godfather' the Famous Dr. Lorenz, Who Straightened Her Twisted Hip Joint and Saved It was explained that by this means, instead of by use of the knife, the whole structure of bone and muscle and cartil-lage cartil-lage was enabled to complete its own cure through tie processes of nature. After the "bloodless" operation which placed the ball in its socket, a plaster cast was applied which held it there while the ruptured muscles and cartil- n. pi lages were ueaimg in their normal relations to each other and to the joint itself. In six or seven months' time the cast was removed and a short subsequent treatment completed com-pleted the cure. Mr. Armour lost no time in send-' send-' ing for the Viennese Vien-nese surgeon who was to undo the malicious work of little Lolita's "Bad Fairy," and become be-come the nearest p o s s 1 ble human approach to a "Fairy God-father." It is said that he paid Dr. Lorenz $30,000 for this particular trip. Subsequently a second visit became necessary and another $30,000 wa.? paid. Still later the Armours took Lolita with them to Europe, and while there visited the great Austrian professor pro-fessor in his home city. All together, it is said, Dr. Lorenz received no less than $100,000 for his professional services in connection with Lolita's operations. Little Lolita's infirmity proved a blessing bless-ing to many another child similarly afflicted, for while Dr. Lorenz was here he treated many other cases. Thousands applied to him. The fact that -the great Austrian professor was going to try his skill on the Armour child was published far and wide, and the lme, the halt and the palsied from every section of the country extended an appealing hand to the modern miracle-worker to make them whole, too! Of course, Dr. Lorenz could not treat them all. A large number of the supplicants, sup-plicants, Indeed, suffered from deformities deformi-ties upon which his particular method would have proven unavailing, but the number of appropriate cases was so great that it would have been physically impossible im-possible for the surgeon to have attended attend-ed to them all during the short period he planned to remain here. Nevertheless, he did perform the same bloodless operation on hundreds of children chil-dren who were afflicted in the same way as little Lolita Armour, but whose parents would have been quite unable to pay the fees he might have demanded. These operations were performed free of charge. But it was the operation on the Armour child which was w. tched with the greatest general interest. Opinion was Her from a Life-Long Life-Long Cripplehood divided as to the probable outcome. Not all the medical world agreed that 'blool-less 'blool-less surgery" could accomplish the feats which had been claimed for it. The operation waS performed. Little Lolita's limbs were encased in plaster and kept immovable for many months. Her suffering wa3 intense during this period.- Six months later Dr. Lorenz returned to remove the cast and ascertain ascer-tain the result of the operation. opera-tion. It was announced an-nounced a complete com-plete success. The promise was given out that Lolita Armour would soon be able to run about like norma nor-ma c h i Id r en.' but there were were many who expressed misgivings mis-givings as to the actual improvement improve-ment which the operation had brought about In the child's condition. Indeed, at various va-rious medical meetings at which the subject sub-ject of Dr. Lo-renz's Lo-renz's method In congenital h 1 p diseases came up for discussion facts and figures were presented which served to cast considerable consider-able doubt on the extent of his success. It i was contended later on that of the cases which Dr. Lorenz had treated while he was here, only, Little Mls3 Armour as She Was Just Alter the Lorenz Operation That Saved Her from Being a Cripple. 10 per cent had resulted in complete cures. 60 per cent being partially successful suc-cessful and 30 per cent being absolute . failures. As a result of these statistics, considerable consid-erable doubt was expressed as to whether little Lolita would eventuallly be placed among the "complete cures," "partial cure3" or "failures." This doubt was cleared away, however, on June 27, 1908, when little Miss Armour, who had grown up to be a handsome - : fnord a ? ,-r. - ; . I .- -y 4- . ." - .... v-; 4'. : v - :v . ; - ' " v . ' " - ii . - : ' ' - '-:'r' V- ,. '1 ' . ' , ' w :,':,! - " . 1 ' f ' ' ::r l r , - - ' " 1 - f K ' ' - ' ; ' , - rv J1 r . i : k :'. , " ' t , ,i t . - 4. i " ' , , - i -''- v ; - -; j y ' . Li;-:::-.-: r -.-;;'.--: . -.--. ? Vrv " ' ."J:. : . " . -'. .. .... . E- - - . -. . :&Xh2ex,i?r?,' '. . - --'i " " , . V ' ' i t . . 5 s - b't ; I I ' . ? ' ' ' I i. t ' j r "l ' " y 1 i - - : , lf rt :vt -'m r y -j.V- t r.'-j , 1 ,r , i 4 (t r , - r -' r ikrPM f' i , - - ' , tiV 1 , j . i j t rp " -i Miss Lolita , ' Armour, the r Chicago I ' 1 Heiress, Who Has Just I Made Her Debut Into ! -Fashionable Society. ? .-i - t j i -, l f , x f - - . 3 fe-5"- . " 4 ' I TV-' V . ' young lady of ten years, returned from Europe after a visit to Dr. Lorenz, in Vienna. As the Kronprinz Wilhelm, upon which she arrived with her father, came into port the hopeless cripple of four years before was observed skipping from one side of the deck to the other in a manner quite unlike what might be expected ex-pected from one afflicted as this child had been. Later on It was announced that Miss Armour was taking dancing lessons. From that time on there were very few of tee diversions and occupations wmcn a child of her position and lively proclivities pro-clivities might be expected to indulge In in which Miss Armour did not participate. She attended all the social functions which presented themselves, and while a slight limp remained to remind one of the fate she escaped, her improvement was very rapid. And now comes the announcement of her debut. A charging debutante, as this unusually fortunate young woman is, has very little chance .to keep her seat on the occasion of her coming-out ball. Convention requires that she must dance every dance. Thanks to the wonders of modern surgery, Miss Armour will be able to answer all the requirements of etiquette and custom in this respect. Hundreds of young men and young women throughout the country will share Miss .Armour's elation on this occasion. To the fact that she and they were common com-mon sufferers they owe the present use of their limbs. These are some of the many patients whom Dr. Lorenz treated successfully when he came to this country coun-try to cure Miss Armour. Most of them are young women, because, strangely enough, S5 per cent of cases of congenital hip disease occur In the female sex. fr . h ' ' I ' ' -v j . : :. , ,:.'!a t. - . , ....... ;,, . ... . - . ... , - ' ; , - - . ; ; ' - 4 , ) ? V':::it,7s ' J !-'.,! u V"-4': ! l, - . ... b - . -.-1 t j ' ' 1 t --. ' ; r v - - 11 ; C 7 . . . : , t , . r. . .-" .:' - : -,- ' ' hL,JA I .1 Another Photograph of Miss Armour, That Shows Her Healthy' Normality. |