Medicine: Awakening

When she was two years old, little Maxine Yarrington of Erie, Pa. skipped around pestering her mother with endless chatter, like any other normal child. One day she grew feverish, complained of a headache, a stiff back. Mrs. Yarrington put her to bed, called Dr. Howard Bassett Emerson. For a while little Maxine cried and mumbled, but gradually her voice trailed off, and burrowing into the warm quilts, she fell asleep.

Once or twice during the next few weeks she raised her lids, but her eyes were blank. Frantically Mrs. Yarrington shook her, called to her, but Maxine slept on. She had...

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