"Proper sleep has been impossible, for I have been constantly in pain. The greatest relief is to have the pumping apparatus turned off and to have a few hours of comfortable sleep.
"At times I listened to the wireless, but I do not like the promenade concerts; in hospital one wants something lighter and more cheerful.
"I have eaten because I had to.
Food is uninteresting when one is lying still all the time."
A doctor who attended Mr. Cooper said that this was. to his knowledge, the first time that the "iron lung" had been used in England to save a man when there were no other means.
"Ordinary artificial respiration as used in cases of drowning might have kept Mr. Cooper alive for a few hours, but he would not be alive today without the iron lung,'" the doctor said. "He has partly recovered the use of all his limbs already, when there was a mechanical breaking. Auxiliary machinery worked by hand and permanently attached to the "lung" was used while repairs were made.
The "lung" which is now.on the electric mains, was worked at first from the hospitals own plant An extra ton of coal was used daily te keep it going.
A few weeks ago Mr. Cooper was transferred to the hospital's new building and oxygen had to be administered constantly while ko was being moved. A cylinder of oxygen is still kept at hand, and for some time a nurse or doctor will remain by his bedside.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.