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THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 10, 1989.
Girl Prays Beside Iron Lung
In Candlelight
Lourdes, May 27.
The iron lung which for three years has kept alive Frederick Snite, twenty-eight-year-old son of a Chicago millionaire, was backed in a trailer into the centre of a row of bath chairs for the Benedic- tion in Lourdes Cathedral square this evening.
A long line of cripples sat around the steps of the cathedral, and behind them were pilgrims who had come to pray for their relief in the city of miracles.
The apple-green cylinder in which Frederick Snite has made a pilgrimage of more than 4,000 miles heaved and sighed in the middle of them, adding a dull bass to their prayers.
Nothing moved in the square ex-¡as Snite watched a torchlight pro- cept the shadow of the bellows that cession to the Chapel of St. Therese pump air-and life-for Snite. Bernadette, the saint of Lourdes. From them he took breath to mur- The candles were held by Snite's mur his responses as the bishop led father, the nurses, and the engineer the prayers and hymns.
who looks after the lung. Snite Only Snite's head hung out of murmured prayers as the procession the end of the lung, and he watch-passed.
which the man in the lung watched the lighted square.
Then a young girl from the pro- cession broke through the priests and nurses, knelt in front of the
respirator with a candle in each hand, and prayed for Snite.
All to-morrow special prayers are
QUEEN MARY:
'BOMB' SEARCH
Shortly before Queen Mary at-
to be offered for him in tiny chapels tended the premiere at the Plaza in the neighbouring mountains.
He will be taken to the bath to watch the other pilgrims immersed. It is unlikely, however, that his doctors will allow him to be taken out of the lung.
He has sent a candle to burn
at the foot of the Madonna in the Grotto, and a bottle of the spring water that is blessed has been taken to the hospital for him.
His doctors say they have taken him almost as far as science will go. A new, smaller lung, with a trans- parent front and a zip fastener down the back, is being perfected for him.
In six months he will be able to sit up in a bathchair in this lung, with arms and legs free. But the doctors do not expect him ever to breathe without a respirator,
Cinema, Piccadilly, London, Scot- land Yard detectives and the thea- tre's fire staff made a most thorough search of the building.
An anonymous threat had been made to "wreck the show with bomb."
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Although the threat was not taken too seriously by Scotland Yard higher officials, it was feared
that I. R. A. sympathisers who ap- parently had made the threat might have concealed a tear-gas or stink bomb of the type set off in a pro- vincial theatre last week.
The search was made without in- terfering in any way with the re- ception for Queen Mary.
'Before her arrival, during the Before his illness. Frederick show and until after she had left, Snite planned to be a priest. Now, detectives, in addition to those at Lourdes, he is taking part in a normally on duty, mixed with the
side.
ed the service through a reflecting A priest made the sign of the nine-day thanksgiving service for audience and with the crowd out- mirror. Occasionally his father Cross over the reflector through being alive. gave him a side mirror so that he could watch the actions of the priest on the steps round the
corner.
The bishop went along the line of cripples blessing them with the sign of the Cross, Then he came to Snite, in a small clearing.
Standing in the shadow of the bellows the bishop made the sign of the Cross over the mouth of the lung.
Snite's hands were not free to re- ply to the gesture, so he just closed his eyes and murmured.
Inside the trailer which carries the lung were Sisters of Mercy and nurses. The nurses watched the batteries that work the bellows. SWITCHED OFF
As the bishop neared the lung
they switched from full pressure to low, to lessen the noise of the mechanism.
In the dawn Snite had heard Mass at the Grotto, where miracles are claimed. The Grotto is lined
the with crutches, and
roof is smoked with the candles that con- stantly burn on an altar.
Here was one of the greatest scientific miracles, the iron lung, present at the spot where the Ro- man Catholic Church claims mira- cles of faith.
As Snite was being wheeled away from Mass the first rays of the rising sun shone across the mouth of the dark Grotto.
He asked the driver to push him back again, and he lay there in the sunrise praying, with his head hanging out of the machine.
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Afterwards he said: "I, made very humble prayer. If God wills it, I will be cured."
Snite's father told me: "My son is more cheerful and comforted than he has ever been since he went into the lung.
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"The expression on his face when he came away from Mass this morn- ing was worth all the journey."
Snite went back from Mass to the hospital by the river, where he has a private ward. Sistera of Mercy and four nurses look after him there. The nurses give him treat- ment, and the sisters say continual prayers for his recovery.
To-night six candles burned round the iron lung at the hospital door
BREWERY LIMI
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