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Abstract
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April 29th, 1858, was called to S. B., a female child, aged 11 years, in consultation with Dr. Hazeltine. The girl's clothes had taken fire while she was in the house alone. She ran into the street, but soon fell, exhausted, before help came to her aid. The whole back, from the hips to the shoulders, a surface thirteen inches wide and fifteen inches long, was completely charred. The back of both arms, from the elbows to the shoul ders, was also burned in the same manner.
Being away on business, I did not see the case until after dressings of lint and sweet oil were applied. I saw no more of the case until five days later, when I was called to it. I found the patient in complete prostration, and laboring under painful strangury.
I urged the friends to send for the attending physician, which they utterly refused to do, and I consequently assumed the responsibilities of the case. The dressings were removed, and, on cutting through the charred flesh, I found the texture destroyed to the depth of at least half an inch. White paint was applied over the whole extent of the burned surface, and quinine and opium, with brandy, was administered internally. The dressings were changed no sooner than the circumstances of the case seemed to render necessary.
On the ninth day, the suppurative discharge became fully established. The bed was covered with oiled silk, and she chose to lay upon the burned surfaces rather than in any other position. The discharges were profuse and offensive, and the patient seemed to lay in a trough of putrefaction. Whenever new dressings were applied, the sufferings were so acute that the patient would shriek most piteously, and earnestly and beseech ingly urge that we put an end to her sufferings by death.
Elixir vitriol was occasionally given, with the hope of pre venting the poisonous action of the lead; and the dressings, the bed and the floor were freely sprinkled with a solution of the chlorate of lime.
Language: en |