Civil War Washington

CASE 1815.—Private R. Brocklehurst, Co. A, 116th Pennsylvania, aged 21 years, was wounded at Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, and admitted to Harewood Hospital, Washington, on the following day. Surgeon R. B. Bontecou, U. S. V., noted: "Gunshot wound of arm." Surgeon J. Hopkinson, U. S. V., reported the patient's admission to Mower Hospital May 10th, with the following description of the injury and operation: "Gunshot wound of left elbow, shattering internal condyle and olecranon process. Resection was performed, by a straight incision, on July 11th, by Acting Assistant Surgeon C. R. McLean. The treatment consisted of stimulants and anodynes, and cold-water dressings. On July 29th, the splints were removed and the arm placed on a pillow. September 2d, wound healing rapidly. December, 1863, wound nearly well." The specimen, represented in the annexed wood-cut (FIG. 636), shows the excised bones of the elbow, consisting of the head of the radius, the olecranon and coronoid processes, and one inch of the shaft of the ulna and two inches of the extremity of the humerus, all the structures being changed by caries and partially absorbed. It was contributed by the operator. The patient was assigned to the Veteran Reserve Corps May 12, 1864, and mustered out of service June 15, 1865, and pensioned. In September following, he was furnished with an apparatus by D. W. Kolbé, of Philadelphia, which he wore, however, only about one month, finding it "too heavy and chafing his arm," as he states in his application for commutation. Examiner W. Jewell, of Philadelphia, certified, September 18, 1866: "The ball passed through the left elbow joint. A resection was performed, but it has left the arm below the elbow entirely useless. The arm hangs from the elbow like a wet rag." The Philadelphia Examining Board, consisting of Drs. H. E. Goodman, T. H. Sherwood, and J. Collins, reported, September 4, 1873: "Condyles and articulating surface of humerus having been removed, the joint is limber and hangs useless." The pensioner was paid June 4, 1875.