Word: legging
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...July, Mechanic Billy Smith, 25, went on the job to reline a steel furnace at the U.S. Pipe & Foundry Co. in Decoto, Calif., south of Oakland. Overhead a giant hook dangled from a traveling crane. In a freak accident, the hook crashed down on Billy Smith's right leg and severed it just above the knee. For three hours and 35 minutes, Billy Smith's leg was kept with his body only by a two-inch-wide ribbon of skin...
When Smith was brought into Eden Hospital in nearby Castro Valley, Dr. Stephen Landreth, 37, an orthopedic surgeon, prepared for a standard amputation. Then he had a thought: "This is too good a leg to throw away." He got on the telephone to Dr. Alan Gathright, 38, a vascular surgeon, 20 miles away in Oakland. Asked Dr. Landreth: "You want to try for a miracle?" Gathright did, and he sped to the hospital...
What they attempted was nothing less than regrafting a severed limb to a trunk, although a successful operation after so long a time has never been recorded.* The conditions looked promising. The severed leg had been tipped up at an angle, and it was drained of blood; had blood remained, ruinous clots would have formed. The doctors' first job was to restore the blood flow, thus restore some life to the limb. Before cleaning the leg fully, they stitched together the ends of the main artery, then the main vein. Quickly taking circulation from the trunk, the leg turned...
...moment, it appeared that the heroic effort would fail. The leg went pale and lost its pulse. Dr. Gathright cut right back into the artery and removed a clot. Then an assistant pumped in an anticoagulant. There were no more clots...
...double humiliation was a blow for coach Bill McCurdy's forces, but there was one excuse for the varsity's showing. Crimson ace Jed Fitzgerald, with a badly injured leg, had been barred from competition Thursday. He would certainly have moved the varsity ahead of Princeton...