A Mechanical Solution to a Medical Mishap
When medical brute force failed to reset a man's dislocated shoulder, a local hospital resorted to industrial machinery.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Doctors' strength was not sufficient to reset the dislocated shoulder of Joe Flavel at the Walla Walla hospital yesterday afternoon, so a heavy block and tackle was brought into play. The heavy pressure shot the bone back into the socket with a startling report. Flavel, who is an elderly man about town, was helping in the work of moving away a load of hay in a barn east of the city two weeks ago when he accidentally fell through a hole in the floor into the feed trough. His shoulder was thrown out of place in the sudden descent. The injury was given little attention until yesterday, when a physician attempted to reset the dislocation without success. Flavel was taken to the hospital, where two physicians exerted their combined strength to shoot the bone into place, but this proved ineffective. The block and tackle, planned by a strong hand, was brought into play. The mechanical contrivance was hitched onto the man and with a 'heave to' the muscle-bound bone gave way and snapped into the socket. The injured man was resting easy today and expects to be out again in a short time.
“The mechanical contrivance was hitched onto the man and with a 'heave to' the muscle-bound bone gave way and snapped into the socket.”
This story serves as a visceral reminder of the pre-anesthetic, pre-specialization era of medicine in the Pacific Northwest. Today, such a dislocation would be managed with mild sedation and non-invasive techniques, marking a radical shift in how we perceive and treat bodily trauma.
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