CHOKED TO DEATH ON COCKLE BURR
- Lawrence Lore
- Apr 10
- 2 min read
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Vincennes Morning Commercial
January 21, 1921
Friday evening Louis Nuttall, the 10-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Nuttall, choked to death from a cockle burr in the windpipe as reported by the Lawrenceville Republican.
The boy was a student at Pleasant Ridge school in Petty Township near what is known as Klondike. He was on his way home after close of school at four o'clock having mittens on his hands. While playing along, a cockle burr became attached to one mitten. He pulled it off with the other hand only to have it stick to the other mitten. He then took it in his mouth and then by accident sucked it in his throat. Immediately great pain resulted from the thorny intruder. All efforts to dislodge it only resulted in it going further down.
Dr. Mountz of Chauncey was called but could not relieve the sufferer. Dr. F. F. Petty of Lawrenceville, for years the family physician, was called and notified that the parents and the boy were on their way to Lawrenceville and to summon a surgeon from Vincennes. They arrived at the office about eight o'clock and Dr. Griffith, a throat specialist, arrived a few minutes later.
A hurried examination showed the intruder was not in the throat but in the windpipe. Dr. Griffith applied instruments for the purpose but was unable to dislodge the burr. The boy was in great agony and sinking fast, the muscles so contracting as to prevent breathing. As a last effort to save his life, an incision was made in an effort to get below the burr to insert a tube. But relief could not be gained and the child died in the doctor’s office.