Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-17
TETANUS VICTIMS EXPERIENCE
Physician who Contracted Dreaded
LOckjaw Directs Fight for
Hts Itfc.t

Few persons ever unlock their jaws long
enough to tell what the sensations of hav-
Ing tetanus are. But Or. f. william
G-rundmann of Wash street and jefferson
avenue, st. Louis, is able to do so. lie
has just recovered from t%etanus, as lock-
jaw is known to science.
There is a well founded horror in the
public mind of lockjaw. While IL Is not
always fatal. so few recover from it and
the disease is accompanied by such horrors
and agony that to think Of 1t is to shud-
der.
Yet the public seldom takes any precau-
lions against 1t, and while a man may run
the risk of It a thousand times and ma
ture is on the defense for him, yet 1t is
easily contracted and the tetanus germ is
ever present in places where one would
least expect to find it-Mother Earth.
I'm diagnosing my own symptoms a week
after the germs of tetanus had entered my
blood l thought 1 had ~tetanus, but 1 was
not sure" said DR.. Grundmann, speaking
of his narrow escape from death from the
dreaded disease.
Il could have accurately determined the
matter for a patient. but 1 called on a fell
low physician and told him how 1 felt and
the cause that led to the effect and he
made an examination of my blood. Then
he called me up on the phone and told
me l had tetanus and that l had better
take care Of myself.
by that time 1 had all the symptoms
and was getting worse every moment.
This gave me an opportunity to observe
M myself what 1 had often observed in
others, the progress of the disease.
"One day as 1 was stepping off a street
car 1t started prematurely and threw me
on my knee on the street. A hole was
ripped in my trousers and a cash cut in
the flesh of my knee, into which earth
from the street was ground.
Il was over on the east side, far away
from a drug store or medical supplies, but
l tried to get some whisky with which to
s~terilize the wound. 1 could get none, not
even carbolic acid. so 1 washed the wound
as best 1 could and bound it up.
ut gave me no trouble. panied me little
and l gave 1t no further thought. About a
week later 1 found 1 had fever and that
the muscles of my neck panied me and
were CONSTRUCTED. Later I observed spas
modic jerkings of the limbs. These 1 knew
to be premonitory symptoms OF lockjaw.
II was alarmed, naturally. but thought
perhaps 1 might be mistaken. so l visited
a physician and told him how ! felt. HI
hlu AlOI llllllh StIiOuSly Oh Il6 IldILcT ana
1 believed I might have been mistaken.
But, nevertheless, I was worried, and when
that night the symptoms grew more pro-
nounced and became more perceptible ]
watched them all the more closely.
That night 1 got a real shock. I OBJ
served a growing rigidity of the muscles
Of the jaws. If 1t kept on they would be.
come locked beyond all hope of unlocking
them.
Il used all my will power that night Ia
control myself and the symptoms, and in
the morning called up the doctor who had
made an examination of my blood and told
him he was right. He said he would be
right over with the tetanus anti-toXir
serum.
I'm one day 1 had 5000 units-or about a
fluid ounce-of the serum injected. Ny
jaws continued slowly to grow more rigid
but We fought the disease with the serum
until at last we saw that we had the dis.
ease going the other way, and we fought
it out.
THE germs of tetanus may be in any
manner of dirt. If you have a wound in
your finger and go out into the garden
and stick it into the fresh earth you stand
a chance of getting tetanus. By that
mean that the germs of tetanus are in the
earth everywhere, in the dirt on the sur.
face of street, on rocks which cut your
flesh when you fail on them, on rusty
nails, in anything that is unclesn. 1t 1.
of the utmost Importance, therefore, tina
when one gets a cut to render the wounC
antiseptic at once. One cannot be toe
careful about making a wound clean.
"A cut that has been exposed to the dir
of the street should be cleanscd, and IL &
surface wound iodoform should be applied
If the cut is deep 1t should be washed gu
with a solution of bichloride of mercury
1000 to 1900. II this is not at hand OF
cannot be quickly procured. then alcoho
(plain whisky will do) should be used as
wash, and If a deep incision, such a.
made by a rusty nail, it should be syringe,
clean."-St. Louis Times.