Keyword search
(Iroquois-specific results
will appear at bottom of
search list):
Note: If this tab has been open in your browser for hours
or days, a new search may bring an access error or unproductive results. When that happens, position the cursor in the
"Enhanced by Google" search box above, then refresh your screen
(F5 on PC, Cmd-R on Apple, 3-button symbol at top right of screen on Android or iphone) and
re-enter your search words.
Devices labeled "oxygen tanks" were brought to
Thompson's Diner next to the Iroquois to
help treat Iroquois burn victims, but
the configuration of those devices is
not known. Were they the bladder-type
systems of the late 1800s, powered by
foot pumps, or the electricity-powered
canisters that appeared a few years
later? Would such devices have hurt more
than they helped?
As a center of medical education in the
U.S. and home to several large medical
distributors, technology in Chicago was
more advanced than in smaller
communities, but much that is part of
treating inhalation injuries today was
not available or known in 1903. For many
Iroquois victims who survived after
breathing large amounts of smoke,
pneumonia was inevitable,* with a high
mortality rate, most died within the
first week. Treatment then for pneumonia
was mostly palliative. Blind
intubations, for example, would not be
discovered for another decade during
WWI. Penicillin had been discovered, but
its power in controlling bacteria was
three decades away, and an understanding
of effective use of humidified oxygen
and IV fluids was even further off.
The Chicago coroner bulk-filed Iroquois
victim death certificates with
suffocation listed as the cause of
death, including victims who burned to
death, were trampled, or who died days
or weeks after the fire. If they died as
a result of attending the Iroquois
matinee on December 30, 1903, the
official cause of death was suffocation.
To many families, the date mattered
little. They inscribed grave markers
with 1903 even if their loved one died
days later in 1904. Years later, a
dispute over whether autopsies were
performed on Iroquois victims would
arise.
One physician in the Coroner's office
insisted he had performed an unspecified
number of autopsies, but another
physician adamantly said it didn't
happen.
The American Oxygen Association's Apparatus
"This large size Generator has almost unlimited
capacity, being so arranged, by a system of
interchangeable retorts that it can be used
continuously, yielding a constant stream of
thoroughly purified oxygen, at the rate of one to
two gallons per minute, as long as desired. It
proves so efficient for producing the gas in
considerable quantities that it is likely to
supersede [sic] the larger forms of oxygen
generators."
Truax/Green Co. catalog 1892
Oxygen to Save Life
"It was a long and patient work, that of restoring
life to the poor sufferers.
Dozens of oxygen generators came from the stores.
Boys and men pulled them from one helpless victim to
another. If there was a sign of life the rubber tube
was inserted in the mouth and the oxygen forced into
the lungs."
"Supplies were received from Truax, Greene & Co.,
and A.C. Clark & Co. [capitalizing on the
Iroquois disaster for commercial promotion was not
uncommon], including tongue forceps,
mouth props and oxygen tanks. These were immediately
brought into use. Out of about 175 placed on the
tables we were able by the oxygen equipment to save
from twenty-five to thirty. If the equipment had
been at hand when the doctors first arrived at least
twenty-five more would have been alive today."
Albert Charles Clark, 1904
Discrepancies and addendum
* In ordinary circumstances in May of 1903, twenty-nine percent of Chicago fatalities, 172 people,
succumbed to pneumonia.
Lowitz and Keokuk
Illinois state senator
Albert Clark helped triage Iroquois Theater victims
Emil Von Plachecki
escaped through bathroom skylight
Other discussions you might find interesting
irqhospitals
Story 1194
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
