Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [336]
and whose efforts resulted in the extraction of several pieces of bone. The child died in one and a half hours afterward from extreme hemorrhage, and the medical bungler was compelled to appear before a coroner's jury in explanation of his ignorance.
In the external ear of a child Tansley observed a diamond which he removed under chloroform. The mother of the child had pushed the body further inward in her endeavors to remove it and had wounded the canal. Schmiegelow reports a foreign body forced into the drum-cavity, followed by rough extraction, great irritation, tetanus, and death; and there are on record several cases of fatal meningitis, induced by rough endeavors to extract a body from the external ear.
In the Therapeutic Gazette, August 15, 1896, there is a translation of the report of a case by Voss, in which a child of five pushed a dry pea in his ear. Four doctors spent several days endeavoring to extract it, but only succeeded in pushing it in further. It was removed by operation on the fifth day, but suppuration of the tympanic cavity caused death on the ninth day.
Barclay reports a rare case of ensnared aural foreign body in a lady, aged about forty years, who, while "picking" her left ear with a so-called "invisible hair-pin" several hours before the consultation, had heard a sudden "twang" in the ear, as if the hair-pin had broken. And so, indeed, it had; for on the instant she had attempted to jerk it quickly from the ear the sharp extremity of the inner portion of its lower prong sprang away from its fellow, penetrated the soft tissues of the floor of the external auditory canal, and remained imbedded there, the separated end of this prong only coming away in her grasp. Every attempt on her part to remove the hair-pin by traction on its projecting prong--she durst not force it INWARD for fear of wounding the drumhead--had served but to bury the point of the broken prong more deeply into the flesh of the canal, thereby increasing her suffering. Advised by her family physician not to delay, she forthwith sought advice and aid. On examination, it was found that the lower prong of the "invisible hair-pin" had broken at the outer end of its wavy portion, and seemed firmly imbedded in the floor of the auditory canal, now quite inflamed, at a point about one-third of its depth from the outlet of the canal. The loop or turn of the hair-pin was about 1/2 inch from the flaccid portion of the drumhead, and, together with the unbroken prong, it lay closely against the roof of the canal. Projecting from the meatus there was enough of this prong to be easily grasped between one's thumb and finger. Removal of the hair-pin was effected by first inserting within the meatus a Gruber speculum, encircling the unbroken projecting prong, and then raising the end of the broken one with a long-shanked aural hook, when the hair-pin was readily withdrawn. The wound of the canal-floor promptly healed.
In the severest forms of scalp-injuries, such as avulsion of the scalp from the entangling of the hair in machinery, skin-grafting or replantation is of particular value. Ashhurst reports a case which he considers the severest case of scalp-wound that he had ever seen, followed by recovery. The patient was a girl of fifteen, an operative in a cotton-mill, who was caught by her hair between two rollers which were revolving in opposite directions; her scalp being thus, as it were, squeezed off from her head, forming a large horseshoe flap. The linear extent of the wound was 14 inches, the distance between the two extremities being but four inches. This large flap was thrown backward, like the lid of a box, the skull being denuded of its pericranium for the space of 2 1/2 by one inch in extent. The anterior temporal artery was divided and bled profusely, and when admitted to the hospital the patient was extremely depressed by shock and hemorrhage. A ligature was applied to the bleeding vessel, and after it had been gently but carefully cleansed the flap was replaced and held in place with gauze and collodion dressing. A large
In the external ear of a child Tansley observed a diamond which he removed under chloroform. The mother of the child had pushed the body further inward in her endeavors to remove it and had wounded the canal. Schmiegelow reports a foreign body forced into the drum-cavity, followed by rough extraction, great irritation, tetanus, and death; and there are on record several cases of fatal meningitis, induced by rough endeavors to extract a body from the external ear.
In the Therapeutic Gazette, August 15, 1896, there is a translation of the report of a case by Voss, in which a child of five pushed a dry pea in his ear. Four doctors spent several days endeavoring to extract it, but only succeeded in pushing it in further. It was removed by operation on the fifth day, but suppuration of the tympanic cavity caused death on the ninth day.
Barclay reports a rare case of ensnared aural foreign body in a lady, aged about forty years, who, while "picking" her left ear with a so-called "invisible hair-pin" several hours before the consultation, had heard a sudden "twang" in the ear, as if the hair-pin had broken. And so, indeed, it had; for on the instant she had attempted to jerk it quickly from the ear the sharp extremity of the inner portion of its lower prong sprang away from its fellow, penetrated the soft tissues of the floor of the external auditory canal, and remained imbedded there, the separated end of this prong only coming away in her grasp. Every attempt on her part to remove the hair-pin by traction on its projecting prong--she durst not force it INWARD for fear of wounding the drumhead--had served but to bury the point of the broken prong more deeply into the flesh of the canal, thereby increasing her suffering. Advised by her family physician not to delay, she forthwith sought advice and aid. On examination, it was found that the lower prong of the "invisible hair-pin" had broken at the outer end of its wavy portion, and seemed firmly imbedded in the floor of the auditory canal, now quite inflamed, at a point about one-third of its depth from the outlet of the canal. The loop or turn of the hair-pin was about 1/2 inch from the flaccid portion of the drumhead, and, together with the unbroken prong, it lay closely against the roof of the canal. Projecting from the meatus there was enough of this prong to be easily grasped between one's thumb and finger. Removal of the hair-pin was effected by first inserting within the meatus a Gruber speculum, encircling the unbroken projecting prong, and then raising the end of the broken one with a long-shanked aural hook, when the hair-pin was readily withdrawn. The wound of the canal-floor promptly healed.
In the severest forms of scalp-injuries, such as avulsion of the scalp from the entangling of the hair in machinery, skin-grafting or replantation is of particular value. Ashhurst reports a case which he considers the severest case of scalp-wound that he had ever seen, followed by recovery. The patient was a girl of fifteen, an operative in a cotton-mill, who was caught by her hair between two rollers which were revolving in opposite directions; her scalp being thus, as it were, squeezed off from her head, forming a large horseshoe flap. The linear extent of the wound was 14 inches, the distance between the two extremities being but four inches. This large flap was thrown backward, like the lid of a box, the skull being denuded of its pericranium for the space of 2 1/2 by one inch in extent. The anterior temporal artery was divided and bled profusely, and when admitted to the hospital the patient was extremely depressed by shock and hemorrhage. A ligature was applied to the bleeding vessel, and after it had been gently but carefully cleansed the flap was replaced and held in place with gauze and collodion dressing. A large