Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-04-17


so much more elaborate and suggestive than
the address itself will be; that ! fear after
have finished you will all feel, much as we can
imagine, the poor fellow must have felt on 60
ing to see his best girl on Sunday night and
finding another fellow present, viz. that the
anticipation was better than the realization.
Fully approaching the honor conferred upon me
this evening by the invitation to address you,
have selected for my talk the subject of Sur
glcal Emergencies"
BY this term emergencies mean those un-
expected things which happen nearly every day,
and shall endeavor to instruct you as to what
to do until the physician reaches the patient.
This subject has been attracting the attention
of the Boards of Councilmen, our most eminent
physicians and the minds of the most thought
full citizens in all large cities within the last
few years. So much so, that surgeons have
been appointed in the cities to lecture to the
police and other public officials, as to what to
do in cases OF accident, etc. upon the street be.
fore the patient is transferred to the hospital
or private home. Now, If it is essential that
in the walks of life attended with as slight
peril as ordinary life in the city is, there should
be special instruction given as TO the care OF
emergency cases. How much more important
II is that the majority of you (who carry your
lives in your hands, you might say in the mines)
should know how to care for your fellow work
man in case of an accident, before he reaches
the surface and the hands of his surgeon. 1t
has been my lot, since came amongst you as q
surgeon, to have had an unusually large ex-
perience in the treatment of accident cases,
to the lack of knowledge as to what to do,
and thoughtlessness in the care of the injured
man for the hour or two after he is hurt; do l
attribute many of our fatal cases from acci-
dent. / do not exaggerate when say that 80
per cent. of our accident cases that require
amputation are practically dead before they
reach the surgeon, and | think that my ex-
perience entities my opinion to just credence.
Therefore, think we can appreciate the i'm
portance Ito us all personality of knowing how
to care for the unfortunote victim of an acci-
dent. First, this knowledge becomes an i'm
perative necessity from our dangerous work in
the mines; secondly, because the patient is so
inaccessible to his physician, and thirdly, on
..ff AZ tsV,,s. 1..
spent in bringing thaainjured miner to the sur
face and his surgeon. In dealing with this SUBJ
ject, / shall discuss it in as plain words as
possible, as free from medical terms as possible,
so that the youngest of the audience can un-
derstand and learn.
My, topics will embrace first those subjects
winch more directly concern you as under
ground workmen. 1st. Hemorrhage. I'd. Frac-
lures 3D.. Dislocations 4th. Asphyxia.
baod WbnS tRe 9r 96 from
is the fluid of life the sap of the whole tree,
TO speak, we can readily appreciate how essen
Der in that able lecture delivered to you by my
learned colleague, DR.. Keller; he described to
you the circulation of the blood from the
heart, through the arteries to the eXtremeties
of the body, and back again through the viens
and various organs to the heart The circula-
ton OF the blood can be likened to system OF
water pipes. The heart is the pump that must
always be kept going and cannot be stopped
for repairs if we would live. The bloodvessels
throughout the body are the complex system
water pipe under ground springs leak, what
do we first do to stop it9 Why, we uncover the
pipe; and right here let me impress it upon you
gentlemen never fail to expose any part of the
body that is injured, so us to observe the extent
OF the injury and where the blood is coming
from, and do not bring a man to the surface,
as nave seen many man brought out with u
crushed leg for examplel, with his boot filled
with blood, his drawers and pants saturated
yes, even dripping through the stretcher onto
the hoor. Now. to pursue our simile further,
we have the water pipe uncovered, we see the
leak-what is the most natural thing to dor
Why plug it up by driving piece of wood into
it, In the same manner, after we have exposed
the injured part, If 1t is large blood Vessel that
Is severed, at once thrust the fingers into the
hear some OF you say, that is good treatment
for instance" Here is where we have the ad-
pipe, for as the bloodvessel is pliable, we need
keep the fingers on the bleeding point only
temporarily, but can subject t to pressure
above or below the wound and thus arrest the
loss or blood. On this manakin l Will now
point out to you the various parts of the body
where the blOodvessels are superficial, and
where pressure will shut Off the circulation
through them. The blood flows from the heart
through the arteries and back through the
veins. You can always determine by the color
of the blood and the way it flows whether an
artery or vein is bleeding. If the blood comes
from an artery it is bright red in color, and is
pumped out by each pulsation of the heart in
Jets. If from vein 1t is dark purple in color
and flows in steady stream. As the arteries
carry the blood from the heart, the pressure
bleeding artery, below the wound to stop a
bleeding vein. Hence, if the wound is a large
one plug It with the fingers at once. This is
infinitely better and less painful than to slap on
big chew of tobacco to irritate the tissues or
cob-webs, or vinegar and brown paper, or any
of the things commonly used, which never fail
to stop u hemorrhage. Next after plugging
the wound place the fingers of the other hand
above or below the wound, as required on the
the vessel and keep firm pressure on it until
/ Hn patnt an .fxa fat
| thickness of bandage which is placed on the
| vessel and strip of bandage or handkerchief
tied over this around the leg, stick is thrust
through this and twisted down on the compress
until the pressure is sufficient to stop the flow
| of blood. Another excellent means of stopping
hemorrhage from large crushed surface, is
application of piece of muslin wrung out in
| cold water. Another means is by acupressure,
| mainly applicable to small vessels, as in the
scalp, around the face and on the hands, Take
pin Ia black one, as they are always made of
steel and do not rusD and stick 1t through both
edges of the wound, below the vessel If pos
sible, and make figure of eight around the
pin with piece of light string Still another
means is by position always elevate the bleed
part SO that the heart cannot force the blood
out of the wound so fast, if you cannot stop
the bleeding entirely.
To impress this subject of hemorrhage on
| your minds will cite two cases. Among the
first cases | had in this region was Patrick
| Bowen, at Ebervale, physically as strong as any
man in this room, bruised about the back by a
fall of coal. He was two hours in reaching
| into the house, found no pulse mt the wrist,
| white as sheet fainting every moment, breath
ing fast and shallow, able to speak only in a
| whisper, so weak he could no longer see and
his mind wandering, his heart beating very
feebly and rapidly, cold us n corpse. In short,
Dloodless man. Quickly examining him his
bruises showed no cause for such prostration.
You suggest that he was bleeding internally
NO, the only wound he had was small deer
cut through the upper lip, which cut off the
coronary artery, and from the blood being al
| lowed TO flow into his mouth, he constantly
sucking off the inside of his lip with his tongue
no clot formed, and he bed freely all the time;
consequently II took me six hours to make him
react from his shock, and IL kept him four
months of work to make up the blood he had
lost in these two hours. How easy it would
have been to control this hemorhage, by plac-
| ing small compress of muslin between the
teeth and lip, and binding bandage around
the head singly, or to have put pin through
the lip, as showed you, would have saved thi
man from this narrow escape from death and
all this loss of time from work. Had this man
died i would have been severely criticised by
| the thoughtless, for allowing man to die from
| such u small cut.
In another instance man was using an adze
| trimming prop timber, when he sunk the adze
into the hollow space behind the knee joint,
cutting OFF the popliteal artery and vein. One
| squirt from these two large vessels and he
dropped in faint Two more spurts and II
maker, the mining boss of No. l Ebervale,
| stood beside this man, and as soon as he fell he
boldly jumped towards the man and plugged
the wound with his fingers and held them there
until arrived, recognizing from the size of the
stream that a large and important bloodvesse
had been cut. There are two as typical in
stances as can relate, to show you the import
ance of controlling hemorrhages promptly
In the one, mans life was nearly sacrificed by
neglecting to stop bloodvessel the size of i
needle; in the other prompt and decided actor
saved u mans life although he had cut two
vessels as large as the little finger.
The I'd topic is Fractures.
BY fracture, mean broken bone. In
| broken bone the sharp points OF each fragment