HIS SKIN WAS INFLATED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9617, 15 September 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

HIS SKIN WAS INFLATED.

PECULIAR CASE IN A NEW YORK HOSPITAL.

The physicians of the Flower Hospital ab New York are interested in a patient, whose case they say has few parallels in medical history. It is what the doctors call traumatic emphysema, meaning that the lung has been punctured, whereupon much of the breath which the patient inhales escapes through the hole, and, working its way out to the cellular tissue, distends the skin to an enormous degree. The escape of the sufferer from having several bones broken, if not from instant death, in the accident of which his condition is the result, is another matter that fills tho doctors with wonder. !Ho is James Venny, a single man. He ia strong and muscular, as a result of the heavy work he did as a helper on an ice waggon. Something frightened the two horses and they started to run, throwing Venny off. Before he could recover himself a wheel of the waggon had passed diagonally over his body, from the left hip to the righo shoulder, and he lay as one dead when the driver and others ran to his assistance. They could do nothing for him, and an ambulance was called. He was taken to the hospital. He was conscious when he arrived there, and, much to the surprise of the surgeons, he did not seem to be very seriously injured. Soon his face began to change colour, his eyelids began to puff out, and then the swelling continued down liia neck and along his body to the waist and down his arms to the wrists. A doctor who tried to feel his pulse, finding a strange condition, called attention to the fact, and then an examination showed that under the skin there was more than an inch in depth of air. Wherever the finger was placed the skin would sink just as though one touched an inflated cushion. Then he began to cough up blood, which continued for some time, and, as his skin gradually became more distended, his mind began to wander, and by night he was delirious. It did nob take the doctors long to ascertain that the wheel did not break any bones, unless, perhaps, one of the ribs, but the condition of his skin would not allow the examination to be scrutinising enough to discover whether this was a fact. That the lung was punctured there could be no doubt, but whether it was caused by the broken rib or by the pressure of the ice waggon on his chest could nob be determined. There was little that could be done except to watch him closely, so that should the air in the skin around the throat press the larnyx close together he should be saved from strangulation. Ho developed an abnormal thirst, and the doctors administered simulating medicines, together with internal applications of arnica, being the indicated homoeopathic remedies. He passed a bad night, the distension of Ins skin increasing all the time. The next day he complained that it was with great difficulty he could breathe, so he was propped up in a pitting position, and that seemed to afford him some relief. Aside from tho hardship in getting breath, he said he was suffering little or no pain. "lb is a peculiar case," said the doctor. " Inas much as there is practically nothing that can be done, the danger is that he is that he may be strangled by the air compressing the larynx. When that seems imminent, the only thing to do is to puncture the skin so that the air may escape. He is on the right road now, and I feel that there is no doubt that he will be as well as ever soon. We can soon make a thorough examination, and ascertain if a broken rib has caused the puncture of the lung. The puncture will heal in a couple of weeks, and then he will be allowed to leave the hospital. The only similar case I remember occurred about nine year 3 ago. The patient did not recover, however."