Washington reports in full the case of a boy of eleven, who, in
handing a fowling piece across a ditch, was accidentally shot.
The contents of the gun were discharged through the leg above the
ankle, carrying away five-sixths of the structure--at the time of
the explosion the muzzle of the gun was only two feet away from
his leg. The portions removed were more than one inch of the
tibia and fibula (irregular fractures of the ends above and
below), a corresponding portion of the posterior tibial muscle,
and the long flexors of the great and small toes, as well as the
tissue interposed between them and the Achilles tendon. The
anterior tibial artery was fortunately uninjured. The remaining
portions consisted of a strip of skin two inches in breadth in
front of the wound, the muscles which it covered back of the
wound, the Achilles tendon, and another piece of skin, barely
enough to cover the tendon. The wound was treated by a
bran-dressing, and the limb was saved with a shortening of but 1
1/2 inches.
There are several anomalous injuries which deserve mention.
Markoe observed a patient of seventy-two, who ruptured both the
quadriceps tendons of each patella by slipping on a piece of ice,
one tendon first giving way, and followed almost immediately by
the other.
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