Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
During the Commune of Paris, Tarnier, one night at the Maternite, was
called to an inmate who, while lying in bed near the end of pregnancy,
had been killed by a ball which fractured the base of the skull and
entered the brain. He removed the child by Cesarean section and it
lived for several days. In another case a pregnant woman fell from a
window for a distance of more than 30 feet, instant death resulting;
thirty minutes at least after the death of the mother an infant was
removed, which, after some difficulty, was resuscitated and lived for
thirteen years. Tarnier states that delivery may take place
three-quarters of an hour or even an hour after the death of the
mother, and he also quotes an extraordinary case by Hubert of a
successful Cesarean operation two hours after the mother's death; the
woman, who was eight months pregnant, was instantly killed while
crossing a railroad track.
Hoffman records the case of a successful Cesarean section done ten
minutes after death. The patient was a woman of thirty-six, in her
eighth month of pregnancy, who was suddenly seized with eclampsia,
which terminated fatally in ten hours. Ten minutes after her last
respiration the Cesarean section was performed and a living male child
delivered. This infant was nourished with the aid of a spoon, but it
died in twenty-five hours in consequence of its premature birth and
enfeebled vitality.
Green speaks of a woman, nine months pregnant, who was run over by a
heavily laden stage-coach in the streets of Southwark. She died in
about twenty minutes, and in about twenty minutes more a living child
was extracted from her by Cesarean section. There was a similar case in
the Hopital St. Louis, in Paris, in 1829; but in this case the child
was born alive five minutes after death. Squire tells of a case in
which the mother died of dilatation of the aorta, and in from twenty to
thirty minutes the child was saved. In comment on this case Aveling is
quoted as saying that he believed it possible to save a child one hour
after the death of the mother. No less an authority than Playfair
speaks of a case in which a child was born half an hour after the death
of the mother. Beckman relates the history of a woman who died suddenly
in convulsions. The incision was made about five minutes after death,
and a male child about four pounds in weight was extracted. The child
exhibited feeble heart-contractions and was despaired of. Happily,
after numerous and persistent means of resuscitation, applied for about
two and a half hours, regular respirations were established and the
child eventually recovered. Walter reports a successful instance of
removal of the child after the death of the mother from apoplexy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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