Ten Months in an Oven

It was news that after 10 1/2 months on his stomach in an electric oven Luby J. Doty, 27, of Memphis, was still alive last week. He had burned his back and legs in a motor car accident. As everyone knows, when one-third or more of a person's body surface is injured by burn or scald,* almost invariably that person dies. Luby J. Doty may be an exception. He had survived the dangerous burns.

But great areas of his body are denuded of the skin and other agencies which help regulate body temperature. A cool breeze chills him. Hence his oven, a hood of sheet steel over his bed. Four big electric bulbs keep him comfortable at 103DEG F. His head, shoulders and arms are outside his hot box. Thus he can read, play cards, shake hands with visitors. His doctors hope to graft skin on him some day. Last week he cheered himself & his family thus: "They told me a guy is a dead soldier if more than one-third of his body is burned. Well, I want to show them they don't know what they're talking about."

*A burn is caused by dry heat of 140DEG F. or more, a scald by moist heat of 120DEG F. or more. Their injuries to flesh are identical.

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