Title: Carpenter, Philip

Source text: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, United States Army, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861–65.), Part 1, Volume 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870), 578.

Keywords:wounds and injuries of the chestoperations on the chestexcisionsthoracentesisthoracentesis for effusion following perforation of chest by small projectileparacentesis thoracistraumatic pleuro-pneumoniapericarditisball entered below outer third of clavicleeffusion in thoracic cavityhydrothorax or empyema followed lodgement of missile in chesttapping employed as palliative measure

Civil War Washington ID: med.d1e20198

TEI/XML: med.d1e20198.xml


CASE 20.—Private Philip Carpenter, Co. I, 4th Michigan Volunteers, aged 22 years, received a penetrating wound of the chest at Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 3d, 1864. A conoidal ball entered four inches below the outer third of the left clavicle, over the third rib. He was taken to the hospital of the 1st division, Fifth Corps. There he remained until the 12th, when he was transferred to Douglas Hospital, Washington. On admission, there was a large effusion into the left thoracic cavity, extreme debility, and dyspnœa. Assistant Surgeon William Thomson, U. S. A., performed paracentesis thoracis; seventy-two ounces of bloody serum were evacuated. The canula​ was allowed to remain, and during the night there was a free discharge. He spat dark blood at first, then pneumonic rusty sputa. Death resulted June 22d, 1864, from traumatic pleuro-pneumonia. At the necropsy, the lungs were found to be hepatized. There were fifty ounces of fluid in the thoracic cavity. Evidences of pericarditis were also found.