Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1893 — Unique Cure for Idiocy. [ARTICLE]

Unique Cure for Idiocy.

The cure of an idiot by means of the surgeon’s knife is ihe unique task now being attempted at the Hahnemann hospital, and it bids fair to prove entirely successful. The second and final operation was performed yesterday afternoon. It is one of the rarest and most delicate operations in medical science. The patient is a little 4-year-old boy named Freddie. When brought to the hospital, his case seemed one of hopeless idiocy. He was utterly incapable of speech as well. The usual openings in the skull, allowing his brain to attain its normal development, were in his case absent. The sole hope was to perform the operation of craniotomy—that is, to create these openings artificially. Two linear sutures had to be cut in the skull, one on each side of the head. The first was successfully made some time ago, and even that half operation produced immediate and noticeable results. The poor little lad became able to articulate a few words and gave wonderful promise of a return of the brain to its normal functions, in case the second suture could be as successfully performed. This operation was necessarily delayed owing to the shock to the patient. The second suture was cut, however, yesterday, and the triumph of the entire surgical feat seems assured.— [Philadelphia Record.