Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: September 10, 2025
The nights were frequently so cold that ice a quarter of an inch thick formed on the water. The naked frames of starving men were poorly calculated to withstand this frosty rigor, and thousands had their extremities so badly frozen as to destroy the life in those parts, and induce a rotting of the tissues by a dry gangrene.
My wife was absent at this time, at the bedside of a sick sister, who died in about two weeks after I got home. Then she returned to me, and entered into the general rejoicing at my safe arrival. Soon after I came home the stump of my arm began to trouble me very much. Gangrene set in, the stump swelled up and turned black. They carried me to my sister's, Mrs.
"If a man had a gangrenous foot would you have patience with anyone who hesitated to amputate it?" "Gangrene is a matter of fact." "And Evil?" What Davidson had done soon appeared. The four of them had just finished their midday meal, and they had not yet separated for the siesta which the heat imposed on the ladies and on the doctor. Davidson had little patience with the slothful habit.
Typhoid has been conquered, and infant paralysis; gangrene and tetanus, which have taken such toll of the wounded in Flanders and France; yellow fever has been stamped out in the tropics; hideous lesions are now healed by a system of drainage. The very list of these achievements is bewildering, and latterly we are given hope of the prolongation of life itself.
Should action not be taken in time, and a man be left for 48 hours with wet boots and socks, the rest house treatment was insufficient, and he had to be sent to Hospital, where, if gangrene had not set in, he could still be cured. Many in the early days did not realize its dangers, for once gangrene starts, the foot has to be amputated.
This does not necessarily imply failure to cure, as the recurrent pulsation may only be temporary; the formation of laminated clot may ultimately take place and lead to consolidation of the aneurysm. The least desirable result of the Hunterian ligature is met with in cases where, owing to widespread arterial disease, the collateral circulation does not develop and gangrene of the limb supervenes.
Here, lay a man with the black scurvy eating his legs away, his gums gone, and his teeth all gaunt and bare. This bed was empty, because gangrene had set in, and the patient had died but yesterday. That bed was a hopeless one, because its occupant was sinking fast, and could only be roused to turn the poor pinched mask of face upon the pillow, with a feeble moan.
As far as my observation extended, very few of the cases of amputation for gangrene recovered. The progress of these cases was frequently very deceptive. I have observed after death the most extensive disorganization of the structures of the stump, when during life there was but little swelling of the part, and the patient was apparently doing well.
However, they protested and argued that gangrene would set in if it had not already done so. I said, "I will ask God Almighty to not let that happen." Then turning to the doctors, I said, "Shame on you doctors; if you cannot do it, I can, only I have no license...." And to Dr. Seversen I said, "Will you do it? Tell me quick, for if you will not, I will take him away from here."
The supply of rags for dressing wounds was said to be very scant, and I saw the most filthy rags which had been applied several times, and imperfectly washed, used in dressing wounds. Where hospital gangrene was prevailing, it was impossible for any wound to escape contagion under these circumstances.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking