Saturday, November 6, 2010

As a curious instance of . . .

. . . the tenacity with which individuals some times hold onto life, we may mention the case of John Murphy whose is reported in this day’s paper.  This man was wounded at the battle of Shiloh by a ball entering the head just above the right ear, the ball had fractured the skull, passed through the base of the brain, and was found to have lodged near the top of the back part of the head on the left side, from which place it has been taken since death, and yet this man lived thirty-six days after receiving the injury. – {Keokuk Constitution.

Dr. Harvey, who is now in town, informs us that the remarkable feature in this case is the fact that the man not only lived five weeks with an ounce ball in his brain, but did not appear to suffer at all from it.  His appetite was good, and pulse natural until a day or two before his death.  He thought himself in no danger – believed he had been hit by the fragment of a shell, but did not think the skull had been broken.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 17, 1862, p. 2

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