Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-12-01
WOUNDS IN THE HEART.

Not Instantly Fatal, as Has Been
Shown in Notable Cases.
The popular error that wound in the
heart necessarily involves immediate
death moves leading British author
ity to call attention to the fact that the
error is once more proved by what hap
pened to the Empress Of Austria. The
victim usually lives several minutes I'M
til sufficient blood has been forced out
of the wounded chamber into the peri
cardium to cause fatal compression Of
the heart from without. In the more
suddenly fatal cases blood escapes free
ly into the mediastinum through a
wound in the pericardium, or death Is
instantaneous from shock due to dam
age to the sympathetic or pneumogas>
trio nerve. 1t has, however, long been
known to surgeons that immediate
death does not always follow wound
in the heart. Pare, in 1862, reported
the case Of duelst who, after receiv-
ing a sword thrust in the heart large
enough to admit the finger, pursued his
opponent, thrusting at him several
times, for twenty PAGES, and then fell
dead. Billy, in 1850, described the case
of patient who lived five days after a
sword wound of the right auricle.
Four instances Of gunshot wounds
not Immediately fatal appear in the
Medical and Surgical History of the
War of the Rebellion published in
Washington in 1870. The first patient
survived a wound of the right auricle
by round musket ball for fourteen
days. The second lived an hour and a
half after a perforation of the right
auricle and left ventricle by conical
pistol ball. The third suffered from
perforation of the left auricle and left
ventricle, in addition to gunshot
wounds Of the intestine, axilla and
lung, yet lived for forty-six hours The
fourth patient was wounded in the
right auricle by musket ball. He
died two years and half later.
The following case is given on ac-
count of its close resemblance in some
particulars to that of the murdered
empress. The patient had inflicted
with a large sheath knife several stabs
on an assailant, who seized his wrist,
turned the point of the knife toward
him, and suddenly drove the blade with
great force into his chest, the handle
still being grasped in the owners hand.
| The wounded man fell at once, gasping
for breath, his face deadly pale, and
died in about eight minutes. The blade
of the knife had gone clean through the
sternum, traversed the mediastinum,
and freely opened the right auricle.
| The cavities of the heart were empty.
the sac Of the pericardium and the
| mediastinum were filled with blood.
| The heart was wounded so that the
chamber was opened, and the blood in
| that chamber partly escaped into the
pericardial cavity, and thus fatal COM
preston ensued, probably before the
system had suffered from sufficient re-
duction of blood supply to destroy life.
His Pessimistic View.
Mrs. Peck-Henry, what do you think
of the cars move in the interests of
universal peace? Will it amount to
| anything?
Mr.. Peck with reckless abandon
No. Men and women will probably
keep right on getting married, in spite
| of him.
His escape was effected by clever
flank movement
Everything without tells the individ-
ual that he is nothing. Everything with
| in persuades him that he is everything.
] -Doudan.