Jackson-Franklin County IL Archives News.....MRS. LOIS LOUISE RISELING DELIRIOUS, PLUNGES TO FATAL INJURY FROM HOSPITAL WINDOW August 8, 1924 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Karima Allison quest@insightbb.com July 8, 2006, 9:57 pm Murphysboro Daily Independent August 8, 1924 In an abandon of mental distress since Friday, obsessed with the conviction she would never live to mother her newborn son, Lois Louise RISELING, loved wife of Robert RISELING, 703 Chestnut Street, at 5 a.m. today hurled herself out of the south window of room 205, second floor St. Andrew's hospital, Mulberry and Sixth Streets. Death ensued an hour later. Just after the dawn Nurse Theresa, night nurse of the second floor, had taken the patient's temperature and had gone to get her a drink of water. Outside she had heard a noise in the sickroom and believed the patient had fallen out of bed. Sister Theresa hurriedly returned. The bed was empty. The south window gapped. The screen was missing. The nurse ran to the window ledge and looked down. On the window screen on a gravel walk below lay the young mother, bleeding still. The nurse ran to the first floor and called the night nurse there. They darted to the form on the gravel walk below the window. The two carried the form to the front hall. The hospital engineer was called and the unconscious patient was soon again in the bed in Room 205. Nurses knew as they looked down upon her that the horror of death which had riddden her for days had become more than a hallucination. A wracked heart and brain, hot with her delirious forebodings, had conspired against her. With a rush she had darted to and through the window, the force of her plunge taking the screen out with her. Physically on her way to recovery, and only temporarily unbalanced by child birth, doctors say, the mother was to have been removed to her home at 9:30 this morning. Relatives had relaxed after days of terrible strain, assured the mother would eventually win her brave fight or life. This made it doubly hard. Robert RISELING was the first relative to arrive, then Dr. H. G. HORSTMAN, who was attending her. Other relatives arrived shortly afterwards. Out of town relatives were called. The father arrived today. The young mother never regained consciousness. A skull fracture caused her death. A shoulder and one side of the body were abraised. The top of one ear was cut through. The face remained beautiful, unmarked save for a palidness making it marble like. This most tragic case of its kind in the history of the hospital, perhaps, brought from the husband and father a sorrow of itself pitiful and wet the eyes of nurses who had fought valiantly that she might live. It was on July 28 when Lois Louise RISELING came to the heritage of motherhood at the age of 21 years,--just a beautiful girl whose winsome way and good heart captivated those who knew her well. Two days following the ordeal her condition suddenly became alarming. Blood poisoning progressed rapidly. All the professional resourcefulness of a modern hospital came to her aid. Fostered by a great new mystery of love coming in the dawn of her motherhood, the mother fought valiantly to live and physically won only to lose mentally. Nurses and relatives had been perturbed to hear her say she could not live. Their assurances were of no avail. The mental distressed increased until Friday it was conceded this new condition was serious at least temporarily so. The plan to take her home today was for a dual purpose. She was just physically strong enough to endure the change. It was hoped the relief of being home again would gradually cool her delirium and restore her. Robert Eugene, called "Bobby," the couple's first and only child, is strong and well. He was waiting for her. Deceased was the daughter of H. S. HUTCHCRAFT of Benton, Ill., where she was born 21 years ago. She is survived by the husband and babe, the father and stepmother, the sisters Mrs. Roy NICHOLSON and Mrs. Earl JAMES of West Frankfort and the brothers Rudolph of West Frankfort, Oren of Benton, Haywood of Colorado, and C. L. HUTCHCRAFT of Harrisburg, Ill; also a little stepbrother Milton. Mr. & Mrs. Robert RISELING were married in Murphysboro on June 25, 1921, the Rev. MARKMAN, pastor of the First M. E. Church here at the time officiating. Rev. MARKHAM is now the pastor at Benton. The young husband is the son of Dr. and Mrs. C. E. RISELING of 231 North 15th Street, this city. Funeral rites will be conducted there Sunday morning at 10 o’clock, the Rev. L. S. McKOWN of the First M.E. Church officiating. Interment in Tower Grove Cemetery. Additional Comments: Transcribed by Mary Riseling from her grandfather, Dr. C. E. Riseling's collection of old newspapers. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/jackson/newspapers/mrsloisl11nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb