The bayonet
entered the ventricle about 1 1/2 inches from the left apex,
traversing the left wall obliquely, and making exit close to the
septum ventriculorum. Roberts mentions a man who ran 60 yards and
lived one hour after being shot through both lungs and the right
auricle. Curran mentions the case of a soldier who, in 1809, was
wounded by a bullet which entered his body to the left of the
sternum, between the 2d and 3d ribs. He was insensible a half
hour, and was carried aboard a fighting ship crowded with
sailors. There was little hemorrhage from his wound, and he
survived fourteen days. At the postmortem examination some
interesting facts were revealed. It was found that the right
ventricle was transversely opened for about an inch, the ball
having penetrated its anterior surface, near the origin of the
pulmonary artery. The ball was found loose in the pericardium,
where it had fallen during the necropsy. There was a circular
lacerated opening in the tricuspid valve, and the ball must have
been in the right auricle during the fourteen days in which the
man lived. Vite mentions an example of remarkable tenacity of
life after reception of a cardiac wound, the subject living four
days after a knife-wound penetrating the chest into the
pericardial sac and passing through the left ventricle of the
heart into the opposite wall.
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