A Desperate Shot, and a Family That Had Tried to Prevent It
Mrs. Henry Vossberg, in poor health and despondent, shot herself with a .22 rifle west of Tweedie; doctors had warned the family she was suicidal and the ammunition was supposed to be gone.
Sunday afternoon Mrs. Henry Vossberg, who resides west of Tweedie, attempted to take her own life, shooting herself with a .22-calibre rifle. The bullet entered the left breast just above the heart and came out below the shoulder. Medical attendance was secured from Newport, and on Monday afternoon the woman was taken to a Spokane hospital for treatment, with chances largely in favor of her recovery.
Mrs. Vossberg has been in poor health for some time, and only recently returned from Spokane, where she sought medical relief, but was compelled to return home without much improvement. Her mind has become affected by her illness, and the doctors having warned the family that she would have suicidal tendencies, it was thought all ammunition had been removed from the house, but in some manner she secured the cartridge and made the attempt.
“The doctors having warned the family that she would have suicidal tendencies, it was thought all ammunition had been removed from the house, but in some manner she secured the cartridge and made the attempt.”
In 1910 a rural family's only recourse for a suicidal relative was to hide the ammunition and hope; the nearest hospital was in Spokane. The story is a stark measure of how far rural mental-health care has come — and how recently the isolation it describes was ordinary life in places like Pend Oreille County.
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