Historic Hood River
“The Pin”
Notes
This is one of the odder artifacts in our collection: the safety pin which was surgically removed from the stomach of Charles Tooley as an infant. His mother Joy Mason Tooley carefully preserved it in a baby album, along with newspaper clips from several cities. On March 24, 1926 The Dalles Chronicle reported:
Open Safety Pin Is Taken From Infant In Rare Operation
Charles Irvin Tooley, 9-months-old son of F. V. Tooley of Rowena, is alive today after undergoing an operation yesterday afternoon for the removal of an open safety pin swallowed by the youngster. The operation was performed by Dr. W. N Morse, who was forced to make an incision into the child’s stomach to remove the pin. Attending nurses and Dr. Morse held their breath when the baby stopped breathing for more than two minutes following the removal of the offending object, but the crisis passed and the youngster was declared on the road to recovery today. A successful operation under the conditions was declared by Dr. Morse to be very rare.
Dale Nicol
I would guess the hospital had a X-ray machine available in order to locate the safety pin inside the child’s stomach.
Kalley
I bet that was a diaper pin. I used cloth diapers with my two kids and can see how this could happen.
L.E.
Like Kalley, I am from the generation that used cloth diapers and diaper pins, and yes, I can see it happening.
My cousin swallowed a crochet hook. How or why I don’t know. I was about six years old, and I remember the worry of the family because they had to wait for it to pass through. I remember my mom getting the phone call that it had passed through.
L.E.
We recently have had many A. I. and Ollie Mason photos. Charles Tooley was their grandson. He died at the young age of 25 from Chronic Glomerulonephritis, which is when the kidneys become inflamed and scarred.
Kind of makes you wonder if that darn diaper pin caused the problem.