
April 1958
AFTER EIGHT MONTHS IN HOSPITAL
Ward Canfield Is Home Again
By DON MORRISON
Minneapolis Tribune
Staff Writer
Minneapolis Patrolman Ward Canfield came home Friday for good. Although it a day he "thought would never come," it was quite an affair.
Mayor P. Kenneth Peterson sent his limousine to take Canfield home from Minneapolis General hospital. Canfield had lain there since Aug 17, the day he was wounded in a gun battle with he three O'Kasick brothers and, run over by their car.
During that time, his right leg was amputated, his gall bladder and two-thirds of his stomach were removed and he underwent more than half a dozen other major operations. His left arm is partially paralyzed.
HIS FAMILY reflects Canfield's cheerful spirit. As the gaunt and wasted man hobbled from the car on crutches and his new artificial leg, his youngest son, Gregory, 6, called to him: "Hurry up, slowpoke."
Wooden ramps have been built over sidewalk steps outside the trim yellow Canfield bungalow at 5740 Blaisdell avenue S. Canfield surveyed the ramp between the garage and the house and shook his head.
"That one's too steep for me yet," he said. "You have to take these things slowly."
He has worn the artificial leg only, since Monday,
HE SETTLED in a lawn chair under the shade tree where he plans "to loaf for six months;" Greg and the officer's other two children, David, 11, and Sandra, 8, played with the crutches. Later the boys appeared with water pistols and sprayed a pair of news photographers.
Canfield chased them away with stern paternal noises, then apologized to the amused cameramen. "I have a daughter and two water pistols," he said.
He has been spending weekends at home since Christmas, but "there's nothing normal about that." He hopes a settled routine will enable him to get more than two hours sleep a night the best he has managed so far.
Every weekday from 9 to 11:30 a.m., Canfield will have to return to General hospital for physical therapy. This will go on for six months or a year.
"I HOPE to be back working for the police department by fall," he said. "But that will depend on the therapy. They say whatever shape my arm is in by next year will be its permanent condition."
His mother-in-law, Mrs. Walter Tuffley, 5535 Chicago Avenue, had walked to the Canfield home before Ward's return and had baked his favorite caramel rolls.
She offered some to newsmen and the kids polished off the rest, so Canfield didn't get any.
But for supper, Tuffley was going to bring over his new charcoal broiler for a steak fry in the backyard.
Tired by his homecoming. Ward Canfield went into the house to rest. His wife's arm was around him as he climbed the ramp to the door.