Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [56]
and the great omentum was carefully spread out over the chest to prevent interference with the efforts to return the intestines. The patient remained conscious and calm throughout; finally deep anesthesia was produced by ether and chloroform, three and a half hours after the accident, and in twenty minutes the intestines were all replaced in the abdominal cavity. The edges were pared, sutured, and the wound dressed. The woman was placed in bed, on the right side, and morphin was administered. The sutures were removed on the ninth day, and the wound had healed except at the point of penetration. The woman was discharged twenty days after, and, incredible to relate, was delivered of a well-developed, full-term child just two hundred and two days from the time of the accident. Both the mother and child did well.
Luce speaks of a pregnant woman who was horned in the lower part of the abdomen by a cow, and had a subsequent protrusion of the intestines through the wound. After some minor complications, the wound healed fourteen weeks after the accident, and the woman was confined in natural labor of a healthy, vigorous child. In this case no blood was found on the cow's horn, and the clothing was not torn, so that the wound must have been made by the side of the horn striking the greatly distended abdomen.
Richard, quoted also by Tiffany, speaks of a woman, twenty-two, who fell in a dark cellar with some empty bottles in her hand, suffering a wound in the abdomen 2 inches above the navel on the left side 8 cm. long. Through this wound a mass of intestines, the size of a man's head, protruded. Both the mother and the child made a good convalescence. Harris cites the instance of a woman of thirty, a multipara, six months pregnant, who was gored by a cow; her intestines and omentum protruded through the rip and the uterus was bruised. There was rapid recovery and delivery at term. Wetmore of Illinois saw a woman who in the summer of 1860, when about six months pregnant, was gored by a cow, and the large intestine and the omentum protruded through the wound. Three hours after the injury she was found swathed in rags wet with a compound solution of whiskey and camphor, with a decoction of tobacco. The intestines were cold to the touch and dirty, but were washed and replaced. The abdomen was sewed up with a darning needle and black linen thread; the woman recovered and bore a healthy child at the full maturity of her gestation. Crowdace speaks of a female pauper, six months pregnant, who was attacked by a buffalo, and suffered a wound about 1 1/2 inch long and 1/2 inch wide just above the umbilicus. Through this small opening 19 inches of intestine protruded. The woman recovered, and the fetal heart-beats could be readily auscultated.
Major accidents in pregnant women are often followed by the happiest results. There seems to be no limit to what the pregnant uterus can successfully endure. Tiffany, who has collected some statistics on this subject, as well as on operations successfully performed during pregnancy, which will be considered later, quotes the account of a woman of twenty-seven, eight months pregnant, who was almost buried under a clay wall. She received terrible wounds about the head, 32 sutures being used in this location alone. Subsequently she was confined, easily bore a perfectly normal female child, and both did well. Sibois describes the case of a woman weighing 190 pounds, who fell on her head from the top of a wall from 10 to 12 feet high. For several hours she exhibited symptoms of fracture of the base of the skull, and the case was so diagnosed; fourteen hours after the accident she was perfectly conscious and suffered terrible pain about the head, neck, and shoulders. Two days later an ovum of about twenty days was expelled, and seven months after she was delivered of a healthy boy weighing 10 1/2 pounds. She had therefore lost after the accident one-half of a double conception.
Verrier has collected the results of traumatism during pregnancy, and summarizes 61 cases. Prowzowsky cites the instance
Luce speaks of a pregnant woman who was horned in the lower part of the abdomen by a cow, and had a subsequent protrusion of the intestines through the wound. After some minor complications, the wound healed fourteen weeks after the accident, and the woman was confined in natural labor of a healthy, vigorous child. In this case no blood was found on the cow's horn, and the clothing was not torn, so that the wound must have been made by the side of the horn striking the greatly distended abdomen.
Richard, quoted also by Tiffany, speaks of a woman, twenty-two, who fell in a dark cellar with some empty bottles in her hand, suffering a wound in the abdomen 2 inches above the navel on the left side 8 cm. long. Through this wound a mass of intestines, the size of a man's head, protruded. Both the mother and the child made a good convalescence. Harris cites the instance of a woman of thirty, a multipara, six months pregnant, who was gored by a cow; her intestines and omentum protruded through the rip and the uterus was bruised. There was rapid recovery and delivery at term. Wetmore of Illinois saw a woman who in the summer of 1860, when about six months pregnant, was gored by a cow, and the large intestine and the omentum protruded through the wound. Three hours after the injury she was found swathed in rags wet with a compound solution of whiskey and camphor, with a decoction of tobacco. The intestines were cold to the touch and dirty, but were washed and replaced. The abdomen was sewed up with a darning needle and black linen thread; the woman recovered and bore a healthy child at the full maturity of her gestation. Crowdace speaks of a female pauper, six months pregnant, who was attacked by a buffalo, and suffered a wound about 1 1/2 inch long and 1/2 inch wide just above the umbilicus. Through this small opening 19 inches of intestine protruded. The woman recovered, and the fetal heart-beats could be readily auscultated.
Major accidents in pregnant women are often followed by the happiest results. There seems to be no limit to what the pregnant uterus can successfully endure. Tiffany, who has collected some statistics on this subject, as well as on operations successfully performed during pregnancy, which will be considered later, quotes the account of a woman of twenty-seven, eight months pregnant, who was almost buried under a clay wall. She received terrible wounds about the head, 32 sutures being used in this location alone. Subsequently she was confined, easily bore a perfectly normal female child, and both did well. Sibois describes the case of a woman weighing 190 pounds, who fell on her head from the top of a wall from 10 to 12 feet high. For several hours she exhibited symptoms of fracture of the base of the skull, and the case was so diagnosed; fourteen hours after the accident she was perfectly conscious and suffered terrible pain about the head, neck, and shoulders. Two days later an ovum of about twenty days was expelled, and seven months after she was delivered of a healthy boy weighing 10 1/2 pounds. She had therefore lost after the accident one-half of a double conception.
Verrier has collected the results of traumatism during pregnancy, and summarizes 61 cases. Prowzowsky cites the instance