Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918Southard, Elmer Ernest
History
Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918
Southard, Elmer Ernest
War neuroses; World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
His sight had become blurred immediately after the shell burst. Opening
his eyes hurt him, and the eyes burned when closed. The right eye
“caught it” more than the left. At the same time, he was seized with
shivering, and cold sweat broke out, especially about the loins. He
thought the shell behind caused the greater shock, like a punch on the
head without pain. The shell that burst in front had cut his haversack
away, bruised his side, and burned his little finger. This shell he
thought caused his blindness.
He was led to the dressing station by two comrades, opening his eyes
to see where he was going but finding everything blurred except
immediately after opening his eyes. There was no diplopia. Objects
seemed to dissolve. He was weeping and worrying about becoming blind.
The horse ambulance took him to a hospital and thence to another
hospital, and thence he went by motor ambulance at night to the
starting point, where he arrived five days after he had entered the
field. He could remember nothing about the ambulance trips. There
was a slight deafness which soon passed off. In hospital he shivered
almost incessantly in bed, and he kept thinking about his experience
and the shell bursting. The shivering ceased November 3. No micturition
from the afternoon of October 30 until the afternoon of November 2. No
movements of bowels from October 30 to November 5.
It seems that this soldier had been for two months in the Aisne
district, sleeping badly on account of lumbar pains and toothache.
There had been albuminuria, and the patient said he had failed to pass
a medical examination. The fields of vision were found to be distinctly
contracted. There was difficulty in taste and smell, which the patient
said he had lost since the shell-burst.
Hypnosis was tried but the patient “insisted on resisting.” The
suggestions were offered during the concentration period. November 13
taste and smell began to return and the fields of vision were less
contracted. He was transferred to England for further treatment, and by
November 27 had become much improved and not so “nervy.” February 1 he
had begun to attend hospital as an out-patient.
SHELL WINDAGE (NO EXPLOSION): Multiple affection of cranial nerves.
=Case 273.= (PACHANTONI, April, 1917.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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