ellenkushner (
ellenkushner) wrote2009-10-12 08:46 pm
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Ellen & her Dad discuss surgery for Alec
The story I'm frantically trying to finish on time, "The Man with the Knives" (about Alec on Kyros) needs, of course, a scene where he shows up and blows everyone in Sofia's village away with an unexpected feat of emergency surgery. My father's specialty is research & rheumatoid arthritis - but surely he knows enough to help me out? Particularly since he has a big collection of antique medical books. So: Phone call:
EK: . . . So anyway I've found a field manual from the Civil War online, but I'm not sure I understand what it's saying. [ADDED] Can I do something with crushed ribs and letting out a hematoma?
Dad: OK. Well, what century does this occur in?
EK: Sometime between 1500-1800
Dad: That's a little before the Civil War. [Discussion interrupted. Dad will call back later.]
EK emails Dad:
http://books.google.com/books?id=w2o-AAAAIAAJ&dq=field+hospital+surgery&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=H6vSSq2MMcvelAfRuLipCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CC0Q6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=rib&f=false
p. 107 "When the lungs are wounded . . . . "
??
earlier in chapter - trephining?
Dad to EK:
Yes!
Trephining is good.
From Wikopedia:
"Evidence also suggests that trephanation was primitive emergency surgery after head wounds[2] to remove shattered bits of bone from a fractured skull and clean out the blood that often pools under the skull after a blow to the head. "
Have him trephine to evacuate a subdural hematoma.
DAD
And so it goes. We just had a lovely talk about scalp wounds. Any surgeons out there?
Or even someone who can quote Patrick O'Brian chapter & verse? I betcha anything Stephen Maturin does cool surgery I could steal. Scalpels only, if possible, please. A drill would simply ruin the scene.
EK: . . . So anyway I've found a field manual from the Civil War online, but I'm not sure I understand what it's saying. [ADDED] Can I do something with crushed ribs and letting out a hematoma?
Dad: OK. Well, what century does this occur in?
EK: Sometime between 1500-1800
Dad: That's a little before the Civil War. [Discussion interrupted. Dad will call back later.]
EK emails Dad:
http://books.google.com/books?id=w2o-AAAAIAAJ&dq=field+hospital+surgery&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=H6vSSq2MMcvelAfRuLipCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CC0Q6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=rib&f=false
p. 107 "When the lungs are wounded . . . . "
??
earlier in chapter - trephining?
Dad to EK:
Yes!
Trephining is good.
From Wikopedia:
"Evidence also suggests that trephanation was primitive emergency surgery after head wounds[2] to remove shattered bits of bone from a fractured skull and clean out the blood that often pools under the skull after a blow to the head. "
Have him trephine to evacuate a subdural hematoma.
DAD
And so it goes. We just had a lovely talk about scalp wounds. Any surgeons out there?
Or even someone who can quote Patrick O'Brian chapter & verse? I betcha anything Stephen Maturin does cool surgery I could steal. Scalpels only, if possible, please. A drill would simply ruin the scene.
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Other than that, got nothing. Not a surgeon, me.
Erk about the PO'B - never read them, but I was once familiar with the fandom...
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(i'm not a surgeon, but i'm a neuroscientist.)
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(Anonymous) 2009-10-13 02:17 am (UTC)(link)Jim Cambias
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Apparently there are some interesting medieval texts about it - I bet he would know more source material. You're friends with him, I believe you mentioned previously.
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A lot of his scalpel work is actually on dead bodies.
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http://www.alia.org.au/~kwebb/Maturin/MMRZ.html
suprapubic cystotomy (PC 62, 434, DI 85, WDS 180, YA 211, BATM 230):
An incision into the bladder to provide an opening.
That'd be page cites for Post Captain, Desolation Island, The Wine-Dark Sea, The Yellow Admiral, and Blue At The Mizzen, in case the abbreviations don't make sense.
And here's Wikipedia on the operation itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprapubic_cystostomy
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I can actually see Alec & Stephen having a lovely time together. In a perfect world, they both attended the same University for a time. Although, at that age, they may not have gotten along.
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Can't wait
(Anonymous) 2009-10-13 12:41 pm (UTC)(link)Nancy Werlin
Re: Can't wait
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I'm voting for this partially because I want to see Alec shout "FETCH ME SOME BANJO STRINGS AND A BOTTLE OF WINE," then drink half the wine, pass the banjo strings under the injured rib sections, and use the rest of the bottle as a counterweight while the people of Kyros go, "...what just happened?"
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I love you more than I can say. When can I take you out for a bottle of wine? (You bring the banjo strings)
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Here's the link; I won't try to use l33t HTML this time: http://www.primary-surgery.org/ps/vol2/html/sect0256.html
linkage
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'Alec' and 'emergency surgery' in the same context do not a calm anticipatory reader make.