Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-20
Written for TIE EVENING sr.p
LIVING WITH A BROKEN NECK.
A Remarkable Case Somewhat Similar
to Maurice Adler's.

The peculiar circumstance of the Adler case,
that of man holding on to life most remark
ably after murderous bullet had SO injured
some of the vertebr8 of the neck as to cause
| paralysis of the whole body below the neck, re-
calls to my mind q case in England to which
Adler might with more favor of circumstances,
have proved parallel; q case in which man
with a more or less broken neck and par
alyzed body, lived In health. for fourteen years.
became an artist of wonderful skill in fine line
drawing with camers-hair pencil held be-
tween his lips. and finally died OF the results of
getting thrown out of the hand-carriage in
which he took his daily airing. The London
Lancet OF July 10, 1856, had the following state
ment under the head of deaths from Frac-
lures and Other Injuries Of the Cervical Verte-
| br@:"
| SEVEN INSTANCES. ~
"Of the seven patients whose cases are
detailed one lived only five hours and half
after the accident, three died in little more
than twenty-four hours, one lived for two days
\ another for six days. and another for TWEEN
ty-seven days. In case detailed by DR.. Fade
cine Lancet, 1855, vol. III, p. 500, the patient
| lived for nearly four months. But by far the
most remarkable case of this description with
which we are acquainted is that of one. John
Carter, who lived for fourteen years after the in
juries which deprived his limbs of motion and
sensation Carter lat the age of twenty-one years,
! In 1886, slipped from tree at the height Of
about 40 feet from the ground, and fell to the
| earth upon his back. He was taken up sense
less and moved none of his limbs afterward.
Muscular power in the neck and head was, how
ever, retained and slight power of motion in
| the chest and left shoulder. The brain APP
peared to have suffered no injury from the
fall. His mental faculties remained unim-
| paired during the rest of his life, and he par
TALLY supported himself by drawing, by means
| of pencil placed between his teeth, upon pa
| per adjusted Tor the purpose upon appropriate
machinery. Some of his drawings made in
this way. have singular excellence, and one is
said to be in possession of her majesty. His
| death was occasioned by pulmonary disease,
accelerated by his being overturned with a
| small chaise in which he was being drawn. At
| post-mortem examination the fifth sixth and
seventh cervical. vertebre were found thrust
out into an arch, and the seventh was disloca-
ted SO as to press upon the spinal cord"
CARTER's REMARKABLE CASE.
The physician and surgeon who attended
| Carter two hours after his fall wrote
Of his condition: "When 1 saw him
he was perfectly insensible and motionless
cold, and breathing imperfectly, with a pulse
| weak In the extreme, and he appeared to have
sustained some fatal injury to the brain or
spinal column, from which there was scarcely
| a hope of his recovery In the course of the
|
signs OF returning consciousness. In the
| course of the night he became more conscious
There was a perfect absence Of muscular power
and of sensibility Of the skin throughout the
body, except in the head and upper part Of the
neck. After some weeks certain amount OF
motive power was restored to the head and
neck and sensibility to the same extent, but the
rest of the body remained perfectly paralyzed
| and insensible."
An eminent surgeon. referring to the case in
lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in
London, remarked on it as follows: '.The case
forms great encouragement to give every
| possible care and attention to the treatment Of
injuries OF the spine, with the hope of obtain
| ing the same happy result as occurred in this
instance. According to the statistical aver
| ages he ought to have died within a few days
| after the accident, but repudiating any such
illegitimate duty he lived during fourteen
| years, and his death occurred from another
| accident. While being dragged about in a
little four-wheeled cart by boy he was over
| turned and as he could not put out his hands
| to save himself he fell with great violence to
| the ground; this led to some chest affection,
which occasioned his death in few days"
| On examination of the injured portion of
| Carriers spine, which the surgeon was allowed
to remove just before the burial of the body,
| this state Of things was found: THE bodies
| and arches of the fifth, sixth, and seventh
| cervical vertebre are seen blended together
| by bone; the body OF the sixth yertebra Is dis
| bral canal, and no doubt was the cause of
| paralysis. The invertebral substances have
disappeared, but their outlines are still marked
and their places occupied by bone" ~
THE SURGEONS MEMORANDUM ~
Of Carriers permanent condition was in these
\ words: Perfect loss of sensation in the lower
extremities and in the upper extremities ex-
cept indistinct sensibility on the left side as
| far as the elbow. Muscles of the left shoulder
1 Al
tinctly on the left shoulder, and indistinctly on
the right shoulder"
Carriers biographer said Of the results of the
| accident which befell him: '.The column OF
spinal marrow, without being severed or per-
| haps even lacerated suffered severe compress
sion, such as to deaden completely the nerves
! OF motion and sensation, yet not such as to de-
| stroy or even damage the nerves connected
| with the respiratory and digestive systems; for
the functions of life were carried on for course
OF years with but very little occasional medi-
| cal assistance; In fact marvellous as it may
| sound to common ears, the injury was of that
peculiar nature that the man may be truly said
| to have IS
| LIVED FOURTEEN YEARS WITH BROKEN NECK
and to have acquired during that time the
singular power Of executing the very finest
line-drawings in existence, by the motion Of
| the head, his little camels-hair pencil of two
| or three inches in length held in his mouth.
| WHICH ne useu Win the most wonderful deX-
terity. He experienced no sensation of pain
| in his body or limbs. He might be severely
! pinched, even till the skin was discolored,
without consciousness Of pain in any degree:
| but he experienced considerable advantage and
comfort, when his appetite for food was slug
glsh, or when he was suffering from exhaus-
ton, in having his legs gently shaken to stimu!
late the action of his system. There is not,
| perhaps, on record a more extensive paralysis
| OF the human frame than this OF John Carter:
| and the perfect possession Of the faculties OF
| the mind and the fair performance of all the
| functions OF life, under these circumstances
| and for period of fourteen years. together
| with the successful exercise of an extraordi-
nary mechanical power, Immediately connected
with the seat OF the injury, will be an interest
ing fact to all students Of physiology"
THE PARALYSIS.
This last statement is an unprofessional one,
and it lacks the accuracy of exact medical
science. The paralysis Of Carter was by no
means as complete as it would have been il one
or both hemispheres of the brain had been in
volved IN the injury. 1t is far from accurate to
say that he lived with broken neck, or ever
had his neck broken. To q degree the bony
structure surrounding the spinal cord was shat
| tered but it was not wholly broken, and by new
| tebr@ in one solid piece, the man lived with
strength Of bony structure of the neck greater
than common. As to the .'severe compression"
said TO have been suffered by the spinal cord,
and the assumption that perhaps il was lacer-
ated without being severed, 1t needs no greater
| assumption to account for what resulted than
| pressure of disnlaced varxohva upon