Injured person

“ All the sympathy that ought to have been devoted to the wounded man he diverted to himself by the tremendous fuss he made about his injured shins, and this, and the chaff he had to sustain in consequence, quite rounded off the affair, and we all went home in high good humour, and the wounded man for years afterwards used to show his ear-to-ear scar with considerable satisfaction. ”

“ In injuries to the person, those marks which denote injuries regarded by mankind in general as differing in magnitude; the size, for example, or position, of a wound; in injuries to reputation, the words used, and the occasion when, and so forth, are the only means of distinction which can be employed. ”

“ Some of the lexicographers define an "injury" to be "hurt, harm, or mischief, unjustly done to a person," thereby implying that any hurt, harm, or mischief done to one who deserves nothing better, or can be considered as justly liable to it, is no injury at all. I reject entirely every such qualification of the term. I hold an injury to be an injury, whether deserved or undeserved, whether intended or unintended, whether well meant or ill meant, determining the fact in accordance with the foregoing definition. ”

“ Injuries.—Very often no one is killed in a fire but some one is injured. For example, five firemen are overcome by ammonia fumes or two men are seriously injured by a falling wall. This then becomes the feature. Injuries to human beings, if serious or in any considerable number, take precedence over other features, just as loss of human life does. ”

“ On the side of the road lay a man with his leg so severely fractured, that the bone had been forced through the skin, and projected outside his trowsers. Over him hung his wife, with the utmost solicitude, the blood running down from a severe cut received on her head, and kneeling by his side was his sister, who was also much injured. ”

“ In the case of injuries to the person caused by negligence, the tribunal considers, as part of the general damage, the actual pain and suffering, including nervous shock (but not wounded feelings) and the permanent or temporary character of the injury, and as special damage the loss of time and employment during recovery and the cost of cure. ”

“ I see no distinction for this purpose between the case of the guard who is not in fact physically injured by an accident to his train, but who, after assisting to carry away the wounded and dead, breaks down from nervous shock, and the case of the guard who in similar circumstances stumbles over some of the débris and breaks his leg. ”

“ It is this: whether in an action to recover damages for an injury sustained through the negligence of another, there can be a recovery for a bodily injury caused by mere fright and mental disturbance. The jury were instructed that a person cannot recover for mere fright, fear or mental distress occasioned by the negligence of another, which does not result in bodily injury, [47] but that when the fright or fear or nervous shock produces a bodily injury, there may be a recovery for that bodily injury, and for all the pain, mental or otherwise, which may arise out of that bodily injury. ”

“ Punctured wounds or stabs require minute attention; for there have been instances in which death has been produced by an instrument so small as a pin thrust into a vital part. Wounds of the head are always dangerous, especially if the blow has been severe. The person so wounded may die without division of the skin, or fracture of the bones, as happens in what is known as concussion of the brain. ”

“ If it be pricking, the Wound is deeper, but of small Moment: If it be a battering or bruising Instrument, the Wound is accompany'd with Contusion, producing a great Suppuration, besides the Concussion and Commotion of the Part, which are inseparable, and often cause very dangerous Symptoms. {151}
Inferences may be made also from the disposition of the wounded Person; for a strong robust Man may better bear the Stroke than a weak one ”

“ Accidents.—Convey the sufferer to a place of safety, and give him plenty of air. If a shock follows, follow instructions given for shock. Do not touch the wound with the bare hand. Wear absolutely clean gloves or wrap the fingers in clean cloth or gauze. Do not attempt to cleanse the wound. Summon a surgeon immediately.
Apparent Death.—Never assume that a person is dead because he appears to be. Summon a physician. A fairly good test of death is to hold the hand of the person apparently dead before a candle or other light, with the fingers stretched out, each touching the other. ”

“ This would include dislocations, fractures, either simple or compound, injury to the skin or mucous membrane, and to internal organs. Burns and injuries due to the action of corrosives are excluded from the category of wounds.
Concerning Wounds in general.—Great care must be taken to ascertain the exact site and course of the injury on the body, as this precaution will greatly assist in answering the questions: Is the wound dangerous to life? Does it cause grievous bodily harm? Is it suicidal, that is, inflicted by the person on himself ”

“ If the direction of the wound is oblique from above downward, or if there is one external wound and two separate tracts internally, from a second use of the weapon on the part of the person holding it, then the above allegation is doubtful, if not impossible. ”

“ Similar internal lesions may be caused by the compression of the chest and body by the knee of a murderer, which may occasion rupture of the internal organs, fractures of ribs, etc. Thus, too, from the pressure of a crowd the ribs may be fractured and the lungs injured. It is particularly in these cases of injury from crushes or falls from a height that we may have most difficulty, as far as the medical evidence goes, of distinguishing between accident, suicide, and murder. ”

“ The sensation of a stab is often identified as contact with a hot object, and it is further asserted that the wounded person feels close to the pain which accompanies the push or the cut, the cold of the blade and its presence in the depths of his body. So far as I have been able to learn from wounded people, these assertions are not confirmed. Setting aside individuals who exaggerate intentionally and want to make themselves interesting or to indicate considerable damage, all answers point to the fact that stabs, shots, and blows are sensed as pushes. ”

“ In less than an hour, conscious yet exceedingly weak and becoming somewhat feverish, the injured man, dazed in mind but fairly comfortable in body, had been safely stowed away in a bunk, with every prospect of an early recovery. ”

“ Let us leave them to their good luck, and stay longer with the severely wounded, those, for instance, who have a leg or arm broken, a fractured jaw, vertebra or ribs bruised, or are deprived of one of their senses—blind, deaf, paralyzed. ”

“ Those on the outside were thrown to the ground with great violence; one man was rendered insensible by the omnibus falling upon him, and several sustained rather serious injuries. The woman to whom the accident was revealed beforehand, was herself badly hurt; but her husband’s was the worst case, he sustaining a dislocation of an ankle. Medical aid was quickly procured, the sufferers were relieved, and afterwards conveyed to their homes. Every incident of the accident seems to have been pictured in the premonitory dream. ”

“ In cases of fatal wounding, among the points to be noted, which will help to decide the question, are the situation, direction and extent of the wound, the position in which the body and any weapon may be found, together with the presence and distribution of any blood marks and the signs of a struggle. In wounds caused by firearms the injury, if suicidal, is usually situated in a vital and accessible part of the body, the temple, mouth, and chest being the favourite situations ”

“ Injuries or Wounds.—These include in a medico-legal sense not only those characterized as incised, punctured, contused, lacerated, stab wounds, but also burns, injuries produced by firearms, fractures, dislocations, &c. One of the chief questions which have to be decided in all forms of violent death is whether it was the result of accident, suicide or murder. ”

“ Have they ever, even in thought, put themselves in the place of the criminal, when the heavy knife falls, bites into the flesh, grinds through the nerves and shivers the vertebræ? But all pain is over in half a second. ”

“ Definitions.—Surgically a wound means a solution of continuity and refers to every such lesion produced by external violence or developing spontaneously. The medico-legal acceptation of the term is much broader and includes any injury or lesion caused by mechanical or chemical means. Vibert [601] quotes Foderé as defining a wound medico-legally as, “Every lesion of the human body by a violent cause of which the results are, singly or combined, concussion, contusion, puncture, incision, tear, burn, twist, fracture, luxation, etc. ”

“ Accidental wounds are generally caused by a fall or a crush, and the fact of their accidental character is generally established by the circumstances of the event. Certain accidental wounds present characteristics which allow the true nature of the wounds to be determined. ”

“ The young lady, whose heart had never been taught to regulate its beatings by the frigid rules of society, or the sharp scourge of disappointment, now took the wounded man’s head upon her knee, and gazed for an instant upon his countenance, the deadly paleness of which appeared still more ghastly from the red streams that trickled over it from the wound in his forehead. ”

“ And why is a wound, or death, from an explosive bullet worse than a wound from the most ordinary bullet or splinter, inflicted on a very tender part? The suffering in that case also reaches the utmost limit, and is followed by just the same death as results from any other weapon. ”

“ A boy who had cut his foot so that a person might have laid his finger into the wound, which bled very profusely, was cured in a few hours so that nothing was to be seen of the wound excepting a white streak, about the bigness of a common thread! ”

“ The solution of the question of the dangerous character of the wound is left to the professional knowledge of the witness, who may be required to state his reasons for considering the wound dangerous to life. ”

“ If the wound is severe enough to cause the recipient to be sent to England, it is called a "Blighty," in which case, if the wound is not dangerous to life or limb, the others stand about looking enviously at the wounded man, and telling him he is a lucky devil. ”

“ In falls from a less high place the difficulty is somewhat different, for here there may arise the question between a fall and a contusion or contused wound, and the question generally lies between accident and murder, or, very rarely, between accident and suicide. ”

“ Gunshot wounds, fractures, contusions, ruptures, laceration, inflammation, suppuration, mortification, and death; and, therefore, he who creates so much pain, cannot, by his actions, be said to achieve anything like glory, don’t you see. ”

“ Pain.—As an initial symptom the occurrence of pain varied greatly with the idiosyncrasy of the patient, and according to the circumstances under which the wound was received. Some individuals are remarkably insensitive, and in these the fact of a wound being a gunshot injury in no way altered their habitual insensibility, but in persons of what may be termed the normal type in this particular great differences were observed. ”

“ Furthermore, the assailant is more likely to escape without blood-stains if there is a single wound than if there are several, and each additional wound makes it more likely that he will be spotted with blood. ”

“ One blow, at last, inflicts a ghastly wound in his ankle; he clutches at the bed for support, but misses it, and falls, groaning heavily, at full length on the floor, where, taken at a disadvantage, a sword is thrust into his heart, and with horrid struggles he dies. ”

“ This is generally the first question a man puts to himself, after discovering that he has been shot or stabbed. A wounded man cannot always answer it either. One’s life-blood may be spurting from an artery at each palpitation, while the actual pain felt is not worth the pricking of a pin.
On reaching the Fonda, I sank exhausted on my bed. Saint Vrain split my hunting-shirt from cape to skirt, and commenced examining my wound. ”

“ When the surgeons came around him to dress his wounded hand he said, “No, I can wait; my wound is but a trifle; attend first to those poor fellows.” He then sat down upon the grass and waited until the wounds of the badly hurt had been dressed. ”

“ Wounded lay here, there, and everywhere, heaped as they had fallen, drenched in their own gore and helpless, yet struggling pathetically to edge themselves with hands or knees or heels nearer some place of safety. ”

“ Haemorrhage from a Wound.--When the blood does not pour or trickle in a steady stream from a deep wound, but jets forth in pulses, and is of a bright red colour, all the bandages in the world will not stop it. ”

“ They are brave. What if you were to see how the wounded act after the excitement of a battle? They suffer their wounds, great and small, without a murmur; they get their wounds dressed and give consent to have their limbs amputated just as if they were going to have their hair cut. ”

“ Upon the boards lay men with their eyes gone, with their jaws shot through and crushed, with their arms, their legs mangled, with their thighs pierced, their bowels pierced, with tormenting stomach wounds, with a foot gone, a hand gone. ”

“ Some rushed round the fallen man and raised him up, gazing on his face, or striving to stanch the bleeding of a small wound on the right side, which would have seemed of no great importance, had not the torrent of gore which poured from it told how deep the avenging blade had gone. ”