Please can anyone decipher/interpret this information about a hand wound?

[rolt968]

Please can anyone decipher and/or interpret this part of a document about a hand wound.

 

 

?? and ?? bullet wound with a ?? - ?? - fracture(?) 4[th] metacarpal.

Wound very septic on admission.

Operation 25-5-17. Removed(?) bone recovered(?) -

Wound healed. Fit for M[ilitary] C[onvalescent] H[ospital]

 

Can anyone please supply the missing words and confirm the questionable words?

 

(Incidentally which way are metacarpals counted - thumb as one or little finger as one?

RM

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Thru and thru bullet wound

Comp[ound]  - Com[mminuted](that's a guess) fracture

Necrosed bone removed

 

Yes, thumb is 1, index 2, middle 3, ring 4, little 5.

Edited 15 March , 2020 by Dai Bach y Sowldiwr

[Marilyne]

compound means there was bone sticking out of the flesh and comminuted means then bone was in more than two pieces… aoutch !!!

If the bullet went straight through the hand this is to be expected… bullet tore right through, probably smashing the bone and taking some of it on the way.

4th metacarpal is the bone on the lower piece of the ring finger.

 

Do we know more about the victim?? bullet straight through the finger… if it's only the finger he lost, he was quite lucky…

 

M.

[rolt968]

3 hours ago, Marilyne said:

compound means there was bone sticking out of the flesh and comminuted means then bone was in more than two pieces… aoutch !!!

If the bullet went straight through the hand this is to be expected… bullet tore right through, probably smashing the bone and taking some of it on the way.

4th metacarpal is the bone on the lower piece of the ring finger.

 

Do we know more about the victim?? bullet straight through the finger… if it's only the finger he lost, he was quite lucky…

 

M.

Alas, not so lucky:

 

Pte Charles Anderson, 23103, 3/ 12/ 3/ 15/ 2 Royal Scots.

 

He had already been wounded once in July 1916, returning to duty more or less at once.

After his time at the Military Convalescent Hospital he returned to France on 14 December 1917, in theory for 15 Royal Scots, however he seems to have been diverted to 2 Royal Scots. He died of wounds at 7 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station  on 16 April 1918.

 

RM

[johnboy]

Compound green fracture

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

5 hours ago, Marilyne said:

compound means there was bone sticking out of the flesh

Not strictly true every time.

It means there is an open wound of the skin and underlying soft tissue which is in communication with the fracture.

It is sometimes called an 'Open Fracture'.

The wound may be caused by the bone sticking through, or on the battlefield , as here an open wound and a fracture are caused by bullet it shrapnel wound.

Such injuries will often contain contamination from soil, clothing etc, and in the pre antibiotic era were very dangerous wounds, even peripherally on the bands and feet.

 

[Marilyne]

true… I was oversimplifying…

 

M.

[rolt968]

Interesting.

 

I wonder if earlier in the war he would not have been returned to frontline duties since the damage was to his right hand. It sounds like the kind of wound where someone would have said that it was a "blighty one". At the military convalescant hospital he was treated with "massage" (physiotherapy?).

 

Are we looking at an advance in treatment later in the war?

RM

[moggs]

My Grandpa received a very nasty shrapnel wound to his right hand.  I have the X-Ray report which details the condition.  This was August 1916.  The shrapnel was embedded along with innumerable fragments.  Two metacarpals were fractured.  He was lucky not to lose the hand.  He was grateful that a French specialist at the AIF hospital in Wimereux was able to repair and keep clean the wounds.  The operations were so successful that Ted, although off the line for 20 months was able to return to his battalion and fought in the battles of Hamel and Amiens.  When he returned to Australia, he became a professional musician (percussion).  His hand was working really well (along with becoming more adept with his left hand).  The only sign of an injury was that he couldn't put his hand into a fist for the rest of his life.

 

So, I'd say that there were many advances in the treatment of such wounds as the war progressed.

 

Jonathan

 

 

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

A 'Through & Through' GSW to the hand isn't of course just a bone injury.

There will be damage to skin, muscle, tendons, blood vessels and nerves which even without infection are likely to  result in significant permanent injury and disability.

I suppose as far as the army were concerned, if a man could still hold a rifle, and had a functional trigger finger, he was fit for front line duty.