| Show 1 iino A HOSPITAL ONE WOMAN LEAPS TO HER DEATH FROM FOURTH FLOOR fire in ind anapol s hosp tal causes a pan in which one life is lost and several are injured while the city fire department ol 01 indianapolis id I d reinforced by corn banies from the suburbs was being faed to its utmost the oc ci dental hotel fire early sunday ing an alarm was sent in from st vincents hospital when the farst fire company arrived one life had been lost and several people were seriously injured in the panic that followed for a time it seemed that the flames which started in a pile of rags under the east stairway would find their way to the upper floors result ing in a frightful holocaust at every window on the third and fourth aloois were crowded the panic stricken men and ft omen screaming for help to those on the street below tha panic that raged on the third and fourth floors continued until long after the fire had been extinguished patients who had just undergone sur operations rushed from their beds to the windows and attempted to throw themselves to the ground harriet leah an old employee of the hospital leaped from a window on the fourth floor and when picked up was dead in the rear men and women were making ropes of bed clothing by which they escaped to the ground be low kate beach less fortunate than the rest lost her hold and fell from the third floor and is now in a critical condition from internal injuries suo talked an unusual number of surgical operations performed in the acs pital on saturday many of the pa carried from their beds by the rescuers were in a critical condition and the physicians in charge fear that many fatalities may result the patients carried to the male ward which is on the first floor and was not seriously affected by the panic which raged on the upper floors improvised cots and mattresses matt reses were brought into use and a general call for medical assistance sent through out the city within a short time about a hundred physicians arrived and the patients were cared for harry nichols who underwent an operation tor appendicitis a few hours before the outbreak of the fire jumped from his bed and ran down tour flights of stairs into the street his condition Is critical james dawson an emaciated pa tient worked heroically among the panic en men and women on the third floor one after another he pulled awa from the windows those who were preparing to jump to the street below and piloted them through the smoke to places of safety on the first floor after saving twenty seven nurses and patients from possible injury in this manner dawson lost conscious ness and was carried into the male ward where medical attention was given him for a time it was thought that he could not undergo the terrible strain to which he had been subjected |
