Amputated His Foot.  A Surgical Operation Made Necessary Through Frostbite

A rare surgical operation was performed at the Tennessee medical college yesterday.  The operation itself was not rare but the cause of it is very rare in this glorious climate.

During the smart cold spell which we all enjoyed so much about the middle of January a boy twelve or fifteen years old living on the Boyd’s Ferry pike just east of the city had his left foot frost bitten.  At first little was thought of the injury but later on the foot became inflamed and gradually grew worse until the ankle was virtually destroyed.  As a final resort to save life the boy consented to have the limb amputated.  The operation was successfully performed at the medical college in the presence of the students.  The limb was taken off just below the knee.

The boy was removed to his home late in the afternoon and will be attended daily by one of the faculty or students of the college.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, February 8, 1893, page 3

 

Had Their Conference…His Injuries Fatal [Railroad news]

Jim Bruce, the negro who while drunk, fell from a lever car on the K. & O. road Monday afternoon, died yesterday morning at ten o’clock from the injuries he received by the car passing over his neck.  The body was removed yesterday afternoon from the house of a negro by the name of Hemphill, who lives at 411 Common alley where the negro died, to the medical college where a post mortem was made and a jury of inquest conducted its investigations, the jury’s verdict being in accordance with the published reports of the affair.

Brice came from Blackstock, S. C., where he is said to have rich white relatives.  He was about twenty-five years of age and was well educated, so his friends said.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, October 25, 1893, page 5

 

Should ever Prize Her.  The Act of a Noble Woman for Her Husband.  Large Piece of Skin Removed from Her Plump Arm and Transplanted to Her Husbands [sic] Wound

Mr. Geo. W. Bean, foreman of the Knoxville Lime company, has a heroic wife of whom he may ever be proud to speak.

He has been suffering for some time with an obstinate running sore, from which he is now recovering.  There has been so much sloughing away, however, that the attending physician had determined on transplanting some skin to the healing portions.

The doctor is a skillful surgeon of the Tennessee Medical college and procured a rabbit intending to transplant some of its skin.  The rabbit, however, died before the operation was ready.

The doctor remarked he preferred human skin and the noble wife bared her plump arm and told the doctor to take all he wanted from that.  Accordingly a piece of skin about two inches square was removed from her arm Saturday and successfully transplanted on her husband’s wound.  Mrs. Bean bore the painful operation without a whimper and thus gave evidence that she is a noble woman worth having.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, November 6, 1893, page 5