The Man Who Was Dead: A Seattle Patient’s Miracle Recovery from 'Incurable' Strangulation
Five years ago, a local man was bedridden by stomach and kidney inflammation, his leg swollen to twice its size. After doctors gave up, he turned to Dr. J.T. Jordan’s 'Bistogenetic system'—and claims to be alive today.
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.
FAME IS SASHED Not Merely by Things Written, But by the Arduous Greatness of Deeds Accomplished.
SEATTLE, W.T.
Five years ago I took down with Rheumatism, Gravel and Inflammation of the stomach. I was two years on my back and could not turn over. I had the best medical aid of Seattle that money could procure, but I received no benefit. I was shipped to San Francisco, stayed there five months under expert medical care, and I received some slight benefit there. All that time I suffered excruciatingly in my stomach and kidneys, and my left leg was almost the size of two legs and as hard as a rock the whole length. I could hardly eat anything and was failing fast. I gave myself up to die, in fact I thought it was only a matter of days.
About that time all the country must rang with the praises of Dr. J.T. Jordan and his new Bistogenetic system, of which he was the author. He took no cases unless they were given up as incurable by other reputable doctors. He charged nothing for services and medicine and his object seemed to be to show to the world "the coming revolution of the medical science."
This 1889 advertisement highlights the desperate state of late-19th-century medicine, where 'incurable' diagnoses often led patients to seek out charismatic quacks like Dr. J.T. Jordan. While modern medicine has largely abandoned such grandiose claims and free treatments for incurable diseases, the story reflects a timeless human struggle: the vulnerability of patients facing chronic pain and the allure of miracle cures when conventional care fails.
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