Civil War Washington

CASE 699.—Corporal P. Lahany, Co. G, 5th Vermont, aged 21 years, was wounded at Petersburg, April 2, 1865, and admitted to the field hospital of the 2d division, Sixth Corps, where Surgeon S. F. Chapin, 139th Pennsylvania, recorded: "Shot fracture of left leg." Surgeon D. P. Smith, U. S. V., reported the wounded man's entrance into Fairfax Seminary Hospital, April 6th, with "Shot fracture of left fibula," but made no record of any surgical treatment in the case. On May 30th, the patient was transferred to Baxter Hospital, Brattleboro, and subsequently to Sloan Hospital, Montpelier. Surgeon H. Janes, U. S. V., in charge of the latter, contributed a photograph of the patient, which is copied in the wood-cut (FIG. 269), together with the following history: "The wound was produced by a minié ball, which entered the leg on the outer side two inches below its middle, passed backward and inward, fracturing the fibula, and emerging posteriorly one inch lower than the point of entrance. Several fragments of bone were removed on the field four hours after the injury. Secondary hæmorrhage occurred on April 9th, for which the femoral artery was ligated in Scarpa's space by Dr. Smith, at Fairfax Seminary Hospital. The patient was much prostrated after the operation, and artificial heat was required for about a week to keep up the temperature of the limb. No recurrence of the hæmorrhage took place, and the wound closed rapidly after the operation. At the time of his admission to Sloan Hospital, June 12th, both wounds were nearly healed and he could walk without crutches, but could not bring the heel to the ground on account of contraction of the muscles of the calf. In the early part of July an abscess formed at the place of ligation, which healed however in a short time. On August 11th, the patient was discharged from service, though unable to leave the hospital on account of an abscess at the original wound, caused by a fragment of necrosed bone. Three weeks afterwards the abscess had nearly healed and he left the hospital in good health, but still unable to get the heel to the ground. This patient had also been wounded through both buttocks, at the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, from which injury he had recovered in three months, when he rejoined his command for duty." Various surgeons, at consecutive intervals, certified to the injuries, and Examiner F. W. Goodall, of Bennington, October 5, 1877, adds: "The left leg below the knee is one-half smaller than its mate, one-half smaller at the calf, and one-quarter at the ankle; muscles attached to the integument on back of leg, impairing the action of the tendo-achillis. I also find a large cicatrix in the left triangle of Scarpa, from ligation of the femoral artery." The pensioner was paid March 4, 1880.