The Tragedy of a Duck Hunt on Cedar Creek
A young man loses his arm after a shotgun accident during a hunting trip, prompting an urgent rescue effort.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Yesterday morning, Dave Wallace, a son of D. P. Wallace, had his left forearm shattered by the accidental firing of his shotgun. Dave and his brother George were hunting ducks on Cedar Creek. Dave was dragging his gun along the ground when it went off and the contents entered his left forearm, splintering the bone as far as the elbow. Some of the shot went through his arm and lodged in his chin and breast. His brother succeeded in reaching the railroad, where he procured a handcar and brought Dave to town. He was taken to the Fanny Paddock Hospital, where it was found necessary to amputate the arm just above the elbow. The operation was performed by Drs. Van De Vere and Heardsley, assisted by Drs. McCoy and Whitehouse. Thirty shots were taken out of the flesh over the heart. Had the gun been pointed a little lower, death must have been instantaneous. When last heard from, the sufferer was doing well.
“Had the gun been pointed a little lower, death must have been instantaneous.”
Fanny Paddock Hospital was a cornerstone of Tacoma’s early healthcare landscape, eventually evolving into what we now know as Tacoma General Hospital. Accidents involving firearms on the rural outskirts of these growing cities were a common, harrowing fixture of daily life in the 1880s.
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