Pearl P. (1874-1926)

Pearl grew up in Crawfordsville, Indiana and married a neighbor when she was 18. The couple moved to Indianapolis and had a baby girl. Their daughter, Hazel, only lived to the age of ten.

A few months after her daughter’s death in 1905, Pearl was admitted to Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane (later Central State Hospital) for the first time. She believed her daughter was still alive and was demanding that her body be exhumed. After two years at the hospital, Pearl was considered improved and was released from the hospital.

Pearl got married again in 1910 to a plumber and did not have any more children. By 1924, she was having pains in her head and trouble with her memory. She became angry easily. She would wander away and kept “an old dresser filled with letters and writings that are of no importance.”

Pearl did not want to return to Central State Hospital and threatened to harm her family and herself if she was sent back. But she was readmitted in May of 1924. She was placed in a ward for patients with severe symptoms, and she complained constantly of the pain in her head. In September of 1925, an examination found masses in Pearl’s abdomen. She “suffered a great deal” and passed away from cancer on May 25, 1926.

Pearl’s autopsy showed that Pearl’s cancer originated in the cervix and metastasized to her intestines, lungs, and skin. This portion of her right lung shows the extent of the tumors that caused her death.

Compare to the Old Clinical Label