Case of complex labor : with remarks, etc. / reported by Gustavus L. Simmons.

  • Simmons, Gustavus L. (Gustavus Lincoln), 1832-1910.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of complex labor : with remarks, etc. / reported by Gustavus L. Simmons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    nature be relied on to separate the remaining portion of the after- birth. A recipe of Plumb, et Opii was also recommended, should the hemorrhage prove alarming. Feeling much anxiety, I suggested more counsel, and John F. Morse was sent for. On his arrival, the anesthetic wag adminis- tered, and he proceeded to make an examination within half an hour from the time Dr. Brown ceased. The symptoms now evidenced great prostration, with considerable abdominal distention, a quick and feeble pulse, anxiety of expression, and coldness of the extremi- ties. At the consultation held immediately afterward, John F. Morse stated that in his endeavors to find the os, he had put his fin- gers through a laceration of the vagina, and had grasped the smooth peritoneal surface, and fundus of what he conceived to be a pyriform vaA perfectly contracted uterus after the expulsion of its entire con- tents, the body feeling like iron and it being impossible to introduce the point of the finger within the os. He supposed the placenta had escaped through the laceration, or had passed unperceived with the clots externally, as he could not believe it to be still in the cavity of so firmly a contracted organ. No further examinations were made. The patient was evidently fast sinking, and the only hope seemed to be in the use of stimu- lants to induce reaction. A tablespoonful of the following recipe was agreed upon, to be taken every half hour: Ammon: Carb., half a dram j Muc. Gr. Acac, two ounces. At one A. M. of the 30th, pulse hardly perceptable; extremities very cold, with clammy sweat on the face and considerable thirst. Hot bottles and sinapisms to the extremities were used in connection with the stimulant, and at two o'clock, slight reaction occurred. Pulse could now be counted; extremities warm, and some tenderness apparent on pressure over the uterus. She slept at intervals from this time until eight A. M., the stimulant being continued every two hours. At eleven o'clock, saw the patient with Dr. Morse; pulse 132; abdomen very tender and slightly tympanitic; skin moist and mind clear. No water hav- ing passed since the labor was terminated, the catheter was introduced and from thirty to forty ounces of urine drawn off. Slight cutting pains were noticed through the uterine region. A recipe, Hydrag: Chlor: Mit: grs. X; Doveri. pulv. grs. iii, was administered, and cloths, wrung out in a hot infusion of hops, ordered to be kept over the seat of tenderness. At three o'clock, pulse 124 and fuller;