The Boy with the Bullet
A miraculous recovery for a 15-year-old struck by a stray bullet in his temple.
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.
Fred Poeppinger, a 15-year-old boy who was struck by a spent bullet November 15, has apparently recovered from the effects of the injury, though he still carries the bullet in his brain. The bullet was discovered by Dr. B. M. Brown, who made an X-ray examination of the head. The bullet had ranged back an inch and a half from the point of entrance in the right temple. Beyond the nervous shock, the boy apparently was not affected by the injury. He has now recovered from that, and the fact that he carries a bullet in his brain does not seem to inconvenience him in the least.
“The fact that he carries a bullet in his brain does not seem to inconvenience him in the least.”
This story highlights the early, groundbreaking use of X-ray technology in Tacoma to diagnose injuries that previously would have remained mysterious or fatal. It serves as a stark reminder of the random gun violence that occasionally punctuated urban life a century ago.
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