Man faints with head in museum noose

A visitor to Boot Hill Museum thought he'd found a photo opportunity Wednesday, but he wound up in the hospital instead. A 69-year-old man from Parks, Ark., discovered that a noose attached to the museum's "Boot Hill Hanging" Tree had slipped out of position Wednesday afternoon, according to Dodge City Police Chief Robin James. The man put his head into the noose and crouched down, increasing tension on the rope.

He was posing for a photo when he passed out and slumped into the noose. The man's wife and another woman were with him, but they were unable to remove him from the noose. They summoned help from others at the museum — including an off-duty police officer from out of town — who were able to get him out of the noose. "If there hadn't been somebody there within a minute or two, there would have been a different result," James said.



The police department learned about the incident shortly before 1 p.m., and an emergency crew was on the scene within minutes after receiving the call. When the police arrived at the scene, the man had just been removed from the noose and was being treated by emergency medical personnel. He was revived and taken to Western Plains Medical Complex, where he was in stable condition.

"It sounds like an oxymoron, but he's probably the luckiest man in Dodge today," James said. "The man was hung from a tree at Boot Hill, Dodge City, Kansas, and he walked away from the hospital without significant injury." He declined to release the man's name since no crime had been committed.

There's a news video here.