PE NETRATING
GUNSHOT WOUND
OP CHEST :
RECOVERY. By Su eg.-Major E. De la Cour
Coebett, M.D.,
A.M.D.
Sooiee a^ed 30 years,
Mahomedan, was brought to the Station Staff Hospital, Dum-Dum, on the evening of 17th March 1882. , , While en^a^ed in thatching a house in the village otc Kadiahati, yards behind the butts on the Dum-Dum ranges, he was struck by a Martini-Henri bullet fired 700 yards in front of the target. A wound of entrance about $ra inch in diameter penetrated the right trapezius muscle about the level of, and close to, the 4th cervical vertebra; its edges were circular and clean cut ; the direction was forwards and to the left. The wound of exit, with everted was triangular edges, situated to the left of the sternum, between the second and third left costal cartilages. There was free oozing from both. A probe introduced left no doubt as to the chest .
...
1?260
downwards,
having been penetrated.
The man was stated to have been struck at 5 o'clock P. M., and to have spat about 8 oz. of blood at the time. When seen by me at 7 o'clock P. M. there was no collapse ; pulse steady and regular ; respiration slightly hurried ; moist rales oyer upper portion of ri^ht lung , no blood in
expectoiation*
180
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
There was anaesthesia and analgesia, but no loss of muscular power, of right arm, which was colder than the left and bathed in clammy perspiration. The wounds were dressed with carbolic oil 1 in 40, and a broad bandage applied to chest. He was kept in a semirecumbent posture, and a mixture containing opium, ergot and gallic-acid administered. 18th.?There was no dyspnoea or fever; some pain and cramps in right arm and hand. 19th.?Removed dressings, wounds healthy and contracting; no constitutionul disturbance. He made an uninterrupted good recovery : the wound healed without suppuration, and he was discharged well from hospital on 27th March. This case well illustrates the effect of a hard projectile (the Martini-Henri bullet being 12 of lead to 1 of tin) when fired with high velocity. The injury was of the kind known " as Seton wound," and indicated by its clean cut entrance and penetration, the high speed at which the projectile must have been going notwithstanding the distance it had travelled before it struck. The loss of sensation pointed to injury of the cervical plexus, or to the posterior roots of the nerves. When one considers the important structures in the_ immediate vicinity of which the bullet must have passed in its course, the rapid recovery and slight injury are remarkable.
[July 1,
1882.
GUNSHOT WOUND
OP CHEST :
RECOVERY. By Su eg.-Major E. De la Cour
Coebett, M.D.,
A.M.D.
Sooiee a^ed 30 years,
Mahomedan, was brought to the Station Staff Hospital, Dum-Dum, on the evening of 17th March 1882. , , While en^a^ed in thatching a house in the village otc Kadiahati, yards behind the butts on the Dum-Dum ranges, he was struck by a Martini-Henri bullet fired 700 yards in front of the target. A wound of entrance about $ra inch in diameter penetrated the right trapezius muscle about the level of, and close to, the 4th cervical vertebra; its edges were circular and clean cut ; the direction was forwards and to the left. The wound of exit, with everted was triangular edges, situated to the left of the sternum, between the second and third left costal cartilages. There was free oozing from both. A probe introduced left no doubt as to the chest .
...
1?260
downwards,
having been penetrated.
The man was stated to have been struck at 5 o'clock P. M., and to have spat about 8 oz. of blood at the time. When seen by me at 7 o'clock P. M. there was no collapse ; pulse steady and regular ; respiration slightly hurried ; moist rales oyer upper portion of ri^ht lung , no blood in
expectoiation*
180
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
There was anaesthesia and analgesia, but no loss of muscular power, of right arm, which was colder than the left and bathed in clammy perspiration. The wounds were dressed with carbolic oil 1 in 40, and a broad bandage applied to chest. He was kept in a semirecumbent posture, and a mixture containing opium, ergot and gallic-acid administered. 18th.?There was no dyspnoea or fever; some pain and cramps in right arm and hand. 19th.?Removed dressings, wounds healthy and contracting; no constitutionul disturbance. He made an uninterrupted good recovery : the wound healed without suppuration, and he was discharged well from hospital on 27th March. This case well illustrates the effect of a hard projectile (the Martini-Henri bullet being 12 of lead to 1 of tin) when fired with high velocity. The injury was of the kind known " as Seton wound," and indicated by its clean cut entrance and penetration, the high speed at which the projectile must have been going notwithstanding the distance it had travelled before it struck. The loss of sensation pointed to injury of the cervical plexus, or to the posterior roots of the nerves. When one considers the important structures in the_ immediate vicinity of which the bullet must have passed in its course, the rapid recovery and slight injury are remarkable.
[July 1,
1882.
