| Her coat had dropped off there in her room. She had on no hat. She looked very white around her mouth and groaned. "Oh!" and "Dear mother." She then said, "Oh, Mrs. Shultz, I am dying." Miss Oberholtzer told Mrs. Shultz to call Doctor Kingsbury, which she did, and he arrived in less than an hour. Mrs. Oberholtzer, her mother, returned to her home about two o'clock in the afternoon. Upon Dr. Kingsbury's arrival at the home, he went immediately to see Madge and found her lying on her bed. He said she was in a state of shock. Her clothing was in a disheveled state; her face was pale; her body was cold and her pulse rapid. Her dress lay open in the front on her breast exposing bruised areas over her chest, with two or three lacerations, little cuts on the left chest; her right check had a bruised elevated area, dark in color, egg-shaped in formation. He had been informed that she had been injured in an automobile accident and made a superficial examination through her clothing to determine whether bones were broken. After such examination, he had a conversation with her in which she told him she did not expect to get well and that she wanted to die. He told her that he found that no bones were broken and asked her how she happened to be in this condition, to which she replied, "When I get better, I will tell you the whole story." Because of the state of shock and the condition, the doctor did not know how severely she was hurt or injured and pressed her for a reply. She then related to him the story, as related above, of the telephone call; her being escorted to Stephenson's home; of the drinking; of the ride to Hammond on the train; of her purchase of a hat and the poison and of her taking of the poison; and of the return trip to Indianapolis; of her pain and agony on the trip; how she begged Stephenson to procure a physician on the return and of his refusal to do so; of the arrival at Indianapolis about midnight and of her being taken to Stephenson's garage, where she was held a captive until 11:30 a. m. the following morning, and of her being taken home by Klinck, who told Mrs. Shultz that she had been injured in an automobile accident, and when site heard Klinck say this to Mrs. Shultz, she, Madge, raised upon her elbow and called, "He lies"; how that she had begged Stephenson, during the night in the garage after the return, to call a physician for her and that he did not grant her request. After Dr. Kingsbury had heard her story, as thus related, he made a careful physical examination after a Miss Spratley, a nurse, had been called to care for her, and after Miss Spratley had removed the patient's clothes and cleaned her. As a result of this careful physical examination, Dr. Kingsbury found that Miss Oberholtzer had numerous bruised areas over her body, on her right cheek, over the chest, with lacerations on the left chest; a bruise as large as a dinner plate on the left hip and buttock; bruised and torn tissues down at the point of the vagina; a bruised discoloration, bruised areas down over her limbs and ankles; body very cold and pulse rapid. The doctor then had the patient catheterized and obtained some urine for examination, which he took with him to his office. He then washed her stomach and obtained mucus and blood therefrom. Upon examination, her urine showed a large collection of albumin, casts, and blood cells, which were all evidence of acute kidney inflammation; that in his opinion, examination of the bruises and lacerations, the ones on the left breast and right cheek were inflicted by teeth; but he could form no opinion of the cause of the wounds in the vagina. He attended the patient until her death, April 14, 1925, in Marion county, Ind., during which time he attended the patient by calls three to five times each day, and called in other medical assistance. The lacerations on the left breast became infected, but had healed at the time of her death, leaving scars. The nature of the infection was the ordinary pus producer, which, ordinarily, was responsible for a pus infection, and was such an infection as might result from a bite. The statement of Dr. Kingsbury in evidence is that the chances, both for prolonging the victim's life and for her getting well would have been better had she had treatment earlier, or within four or five hours after taking the poison; the delay caused by the automobile ride from Hammond to Indianapolis and the subsequent detention certainly tended to lessen her chances for recovery, or to shorten her life. An attorney, a friend of the Oberholtzer family, visited at the Oberholtzer home frequently from March 17th, the time of Miss Oberholtzer's return from Hammond, to April 14, 1925, the day on which she died. Miss Oberholtzer told the attorney the story of the incidents related, and informed him that she knew she had no chance for recovery and was ready to die. From the statements so made by her to him, he prepared and had transcribed by typewriter a dying statement, which was read to her and in which she made corrections, and which was afterwards again prepared and read to her and approved, and she signed the statement, saying therein that she had no hope of recovery; and that she believed and knew that she was about to die and that she took an oath before a notary public of the truth of the statements made in the dying declarationThe testimony of the physicians, who were in attendance upon Miss Oberholtzer as their patient during portions of the time after her return from Hammond until her death, and the consulting physicians, by their testimony, showed that the minimum fatal dose of bichloride of mercury is two or three grains; but larger doses are not necessarily more apt to be fatal, but the danger rests upon the amount of poison absorbed and retained; the form in which taken, whether tablets or powder; the promptness of vomiting or purging, efficiency of treatment; the fullness or emptiness of the stomach at the time the poison is taken by way of the mouth. Medical history shows that recoveries have occurred when as much as 500 grains were swallowed; the per cent. of fatalities since A. D. 1910 is about 25 per cent. and as low as 6 per cent. in one hospital. The average time for the life of the patient after having taken the poison in a fatal dose is from five to twelve days. Medical history shows that some patients have died within a few hours after taking the poison, and the longest reported case in medical history is that the patient died the 25th day after taking the poison, and that all reported cases of patients who lived beyond 25 days after taking the poison had recovered; that in a severe case, where the patient survived 29 to 30 days, as did Miss Oberholtzer, after taking the poison, and died, the consensus of opinion was stated that some other factor played a part in causing the death. The action of this poison, if the patient lives more than a few days, expresses itself in the kidneys and causes an acute nephritis of the kidneys to such an extent that there is a failure to secrete urine by those organs. Nephritis, caused by the poison if the patient lives beyond the twelfth day, diminishes, and the kidneys begin a process of repair and resumption of their function, and that medical history shows that it requires five to twelve days for a human being to die if the kidneys are completely out of function. The report of the post mortem upon Miss Oberholtzer in evidence showed that the physician making such examination found an acute nephritis, the effect of bichloride of mercury on the kidney, degeneration of other organs in the liver and heart muscle, irritation of gastro-intestinal tract, abscess on one of her lungs, recently healed injuries on the surface of her body, four or five on the surface of her chest; one of which showed evidence of previous supporation, which was caused by the entrance of bacteria in that wound. Portions of the liver and kidneys were subjected to examination by Dr. Harger of Indiana University School of Medicine, the result of which, according to his evidence, showed that the injury to the kidney by the poison, which injury was termed nephritis, had almost healed, and that the kidney tissues were in a state of advanced repair; the abscess in the lung contained pus or pus-forming germs which are carried by the blood stream by which circulation these germs, coming from an infected wound, cause blood poisoning or pyemia; the symptoms of such pyemia are weakness, a rapid pulse, and fever. The post mortem examination showed that the lacerated and recently healed infection over one of her breasts was the only one found from which such pyemia could probably have resulted. The injury made on her breast could have been infected by human teeth, and wounds so made are apt to be infected by bacteria on the teeth and the mouth of the person biting, or such bacteria may be on the skin which are carried in beneath the skin by the injury. The opinion was that the infection in the lungs came from the infected area on the chest, and that the kidneys were also infected by the same bacteria, which, on account of the poisoning, would be less able to resist infection by the pus germs. The abscess in the lung, the infection in the blood stream, and the infection in the kidney all tended to prevent recovery, and that it was highly probable that such infection contributed to the death of Miss Oberholtzer; |