Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1913 — MAN IS BORN AGAIN [ARTICLE]

MAN IS BORN AGAIN

RemWal of Brain Tumor Leaves Patient an Infant. Gradually He Is Beginning the Use of His Faculties, and the Surgeons Bay He Will Fully Recover. Denver. —Every morning a number of itbe leading surgeons of Denver gather at the county hospital to watch the remarkable, spectacle of a man six-ty-three years old literally being born' into the world. Each day the patient acquires the use of one or two more of his faculties, until he can now move, •< eat, recognize persons and speak a few v(prds. v —- The man Is Luther Dionne, who for five years has been practically dying from a tumor in bis brain. He was paralyzed, speechless, sightless and outwardly dead on December 30 last when two surgeons operated upon his t brain. They removed a tumor larger than a walnut from the cortex of the brain. The tumor had destroyed all the nerve fibers except those running to the heart and lungs. For two weeks after the operation Luther Dionne lay as if dead. He was fed, through the nostrils. Then he began to undergo a complete second birth into life. His fingers began to move. The next day his toes moved. On the third day he could lift his arm slightly, anfi so on, day after day, the rejuvenation continued. At the end of ten days he regained his sight, but was like a baby, and knew no one. When two weeks had passed he spoke a word or so, repeating after ‘the nurse "food” or doctor or nurße. A few days ago the aged man was so far recovered that be~ could sit up in bed, feed himself, distinguish one nurse from another and speak quite tl few of the Bimpler words that he had heard used by the people in his ward. One of the surgeons says that Di-. onne is well on the road to complete recovery, and that he is regaining his normal faculties as fast as new nerve fibers grow through his brain. Memory has not yet returned, but in time he will be able to take up his life where if left off when he lost consciousness five years ago. Other Den-' ver surgeons say that the operation is one of the remarkable ever per. formed in the United States. Little is known of Luther Dionne except that he was once a prosperous real estate man. His life virtually ended with the growth of the tumor.