Case of traumatic spreading gangrene after severe compound fracture of the leg : for which amputation beneath the trochanters was performed and the arteries secured by four acupressure needles... / by P.D. Handyside.

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881.
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of traumatic spreading gangrene after severe compound fracture of the leg : for which amputation beneath the trochanters was performed and the arteries secured by four acupressure needles... / by P.D. Handyside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OP TRAUMATIC SPREADING GANGRENE. John M‘-, aged 14 years, acted as “roadsman” in one of Lord Rosslyn’s coal shafts near Dysart. Here is an incline, about 60 yards in length, with a fall of about one foot in every eight, fur¬ nished with a double line of rails, along which loaded and unloaded waggons are continually passing and repassing. The loaded wag¬ gons go down on the one line and on the other alternately,—let down by means of a rope-chain from the top of the incline to the bottom, where they are shunted to a level line of rails leading to the bottom of the “ shaft.” On the 7th of July last, at 6.30 a.m., a loaded waggon, containing fully 7 cwt. of coals, had been despatched from the top of the incline in the customary way ; but, when within about 30 yards of the bottom, the connecting ring gave way, and, now unchecked, it ran with increasing impetus down the slope. One of the neighbour¬ ing miners, on hearing the unusual noise, called to those below to stand clear of the incline, as something had gone wrong. -, instead of occupying his proper seat, about two yards away from the foot of the incline, there to await the due arrival of a full wag¬ gon for the purpose of uncoupling it, had been sitting, as was his wont, in the space between the two lines of rail at the foot of the incline. He, now alarmed, started to his feet to escape the danger; but, uncertain on which line the waggon might at this time be coming—the extreme height of the “ mining road” being only 3J feet—he went right in the way of danger, and the loaded waggon ran tilt against him, knocked out his lamp, and carried him, in a vertical posture, for about a yard distance, when it forcibly impacted him against one of the “trees” at the extreme end of the slope.1 The miners, on hurrying to the spot, found -pinned by the lower projecting ledge of the waggon to the side of the pit so firmly, that the waggon had to be pulled back ere he could be extricated; when he was found insensible, with his left leg severely crushed, and having sustained a considerable loss of blood from the seat of the injury. He was at once taken to the bottom of the pit-shaft, and thence raised to the top, where a cart was procured, in which he was conveyed to his home in Dysart. Dr Todd, surgeon to the 1 These so-called “trees” are, in general, portions of fir trees, with their branches coarsely lopped off, and set as upright ‘props, a few feet apart, along the sides of the mining-roads, to prevent the roofs from giving way when the coal is being wrought out.