Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-02-24
mo VITAL SPOT NOW.
WOUNDS OF HEART AND BRAIN THAT
HAVE FAILED TO KILL.

f1ANG TfiLEC ~ 'N'--'
Living With Bullet Embedded In his =
Heart-Persons Who Have Been Shot :.
Tbro,.ph Their Brains and Survived-Ad- 1;
yances In Treating Such Cases. r
"For my own part, said the doctor, !,
with shrug, 81 would prefer not to be
shot at all, whether in the heart, head' )
lungs, liver or brain, and yet l have
taken note of many cases recently IN ,
which persons have sustained gunshot
wounds of supposedly fatal character i,
who are still alive and going about their
business.
The doctor and his companion were
passing a down town museum when the
conversation took this turn. Among
the freaks pictured and caricatured IN
front Of the building was a man with
ragged bullet wound torn through his
heart-whioh organ was wildly exposed :
in the fiaring daub-while the angel OF
death was lowering over him. ready to
snatch him away at any moment
"Then," said the doctor s friend, "a
shot or a stab in the heart is not neces-
sarily fatal. as it is understood by mod i,
| ern surgery!'
"Not at all,' returned the doctor.
"But of course, we are not speaking OF |
wounds as big and terrible as the one
in that museum picture. That is appar-
| emily even worse than the thrust re-
ceived by Mercutio-looks about as deep
| as we'll and as wide as church door.
| No man who has been wounded ike
that ever survives moro than minute.
"That man In the museum Is alleged
to be Charles B. Nelson, who was mys-
teriously shot one evening while in the
company of Mrs. Edith Marguerite sta
pies in Washington park. The shooting
occurred on night five months ago,
and the man with an ounce of lead IN
his heart is still alive. Whether he
sleeps we'll and has good appetite l
, am unable to say He was formerly
, cyclist of some note. Nelson's breast
was subjected to the K rays, and, &C.
cording to sciographs which were made
at the time the bullet lodged In the
, septum of the heart-the fourfold par
, tition of muscular fiber that divides the
interior of that organ into right and lett
auricles and ventricles There 1t has
continued to throb up and down about
! 100, 900 times day ever since that mys-
@ FERROUS shooting, and at every pulsatlon
9 refuting the old theory Of medical SCI
n enca that the touch Of hostile metal to
f mans heart brings death.
1.-the most skillful and daring sur
t geon On earth, if he were asked to re-
Il move the bullet from Nelson's heart.
), would shake his head Ill the negative
# So this man must carry his leaden han
|. dicap as long as life shall last. Seems
strange, doesn't 1t?
g "And yet, Notwithstanding what
If have said, we have surgeons nowaday'
S. who do undertake anti carry to sue
:. cessful conclusion operations on tn'
% heart. This is done by opening the perl
Y, cardium, for example, in cases OF drop
TO sy of the heart, and drawing Oil tn
fluid by aspiration. A man may hav
,e his heart punctured with the point OF
IL knife Or needle and still recover iron
IN the injury 1t used to be held tina
re wounds Of this character were lnVarla
ra bly fatal Bat wound OF the heart
- not necessarily fatal, as is shown III tn
case where a needle was removed b
Calender from the substance OF tina
organ. Gases Of like nature have bee
let Ereported by Drs. Hahn, AgneW, Stell
n ner and others More than so cass
es' where rupture of the heart walls dl
he not result in immediate death are II
Ter ported by DIR. D. j. Hamilton, we
i'll known Scotch surgeon and pathologls
no "The case Of Poole, prlZenghte
DIV was one of the most remarkable. FOO
by was shot in the heart while engaged
he an encounter with man named Bake
TT in New Jersey, in 1855. To all outwal
ut appearance he recovered rapidly and
is four DAYS felt so well that he expresse
is q wish to finish the interrupted contes
ase Twelve days later, however, he suddel
va ly dropped to the ground Within n
90 minutes he was dead.
de- "More remarkable still, perhaps, a
to- the numerous injuries to the brain al
ese spinal cord, which on first view won
re- be pronounced fatal and yet from viii
de- the wounded persons recover. At v;
Pc | paraiso Ind, a man named Herbert
rid Fish while in {, fit of temporary lnsa
ma ity put 3S caliber bullet through l
let brain. and at last accounts he was st
bur alive and apparently getting well.
led bullet, by all accounts, passed tErou
mt the right and left anterior hemisphel
heir of the brain, lodging finally IN tie p
yay, terror bone wall of the left eye sock'
she In it's course the ball destroyed ial
Y in amount Of brain matter. AT the So
She time it cut tie optic nerves OF both ey
Ian destroying the sight. III some way''
Tho, sense Of smell, too, was destroyed.
his "Many Chicagoans will reInelnbe
rays tragedy at the Briggs House i'll this
says several years ago, in which man
me- was shot il the brain got we'll. j.
more Mcdonnell, a we'll known veterlni
von- surgeon, and his wife were boarders
} to- the hotel 1t was in August, 1887. I
who day there was a great uproar and excl
Lin ment over shooting ARRAY IN the apa
letic ments of the McDonnells. In the gu
:" rel Mcdonnell was shot by his wife,
bullet entering the side of his head
the parietal bone above the ear and
aker etrating the brain. Within the next
only hours the ball was removed by Dr.
'ath- ton H. Montgomery, and tho woun
,usi- man got we'll. The wife at the So
Until time shot herself in the head, but
abor injuries were not serious. Old time
INES tors used to pronounce wounds like
t be Of McDonnells fatal IN every lnstt'
Amy and made very little effort to save
-ork patient. Brain injuries are most serl
first and most often prove iatal "heh
days occur near the base OF the BRAIN,
oney cago Tribune,
self. -
nm tfk "