About Curtis J. Edwards, MD, FACS Expertise Semi-retired, general and vascular surgery questions, veins arteries and questions related to the thorax. Seventeen years practice experience. I ran the non-invasive vascular lab at a major teaching hospital prior to attending medical school. While in private practice treated diseases of the peripheral veins and arteries including venous injection and ablation procedures, and arterial bypass grafting, and endarterectomy.
Experience Seventeen years private practice, general, peripheral vascular, non-cardiac thoracic surgery (semi-retired). Aviation medicine.
Organizations College of Surgeons, AMA, Aerospace Medical Assoc.
Education/Credentials BA,MD, American Board of Surgery, Fellow American College of Surgeons, Senior FAA Aerospace Medical Examiner
Question QUESTION: I'm wondering what sort of injuries could be caused by an illegal animal trap...
it's for a novel I'm writing where a man has his leg trapped by one with metal
teeth and no spring lock to release the leg... I want to envisage the worst case
scenario (reperfusion? amputation?) and would like to know about the sort of
surgery required to treat such an injury.
ANSWER: Polly, you must be more specific. If a character is shot, it does the reader no good if the author fails to inform him of the gun type and caliber. It is a common misconception that all bullet wounds are created equal.
What size is the trap? Is the trap a bear trap, a trap that shoots a cyanide projectile used for coyote abatement (quite illegal), or a rabbit snare? Which part of the leg? Are we dealing with a mid-foot, ankle, calf, or thigh? Imagine the injury and get back to me. What do you want the outcome to be? Do you want him to languish on a forgotten trail lying in the snow and slowly exanguinating or do you want him rescued, only to undergo a horrific surgery that fails causing him to die a septic death. Or, does he just need stitches so he can go get the bad guy? I'll help you in detail, but I would enjoy a credit for the advice if you are published.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Dear Curtis,
Good point! I've had a problem with deciding this because the novel is set in
contemporary Britain and most forms of potentially damage causing gin traps
have been outlawed for decades (although this would not stop an
unscrupulous farmer from continuing to use them anyway)... another obstacle
is that even the outlawed traps would not be capable of causing that much
damage because the largest wild animals that traps were laid for were
badgers... so anyway, I want the trap to be a 19th century man-trap, which
used to be set to ensnare poachers and were capable of breaking a man's leg.
Here's an image of one: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/virtualmuseum/index.php?
page=object_detail&prefix=ABDUA&num=17614&firstview=true&mt=&sign=
&viewnumber=&resultsperpage=9
These were about 5 to 6 feet long and made of cast iron. They caught fairly
high up on the victim's leg, around the shin I think and were probably capable
of snapping the tibia in two. In this case, I want the trap to be a very old
example (they were outlawed in 1827!) - and rusty too... It still works
because although it looks like it has lain there forever, the evil farmer in the
novel is a trap collector who secretly laid it only the night before to catch
trespassers.
The guy who gets caught in the trap doesn't lie there for too long, but it is
still a while before help comes because even when the emergency services are
called, they have to get through the woods with a stretcher to find him and
then figure out how to release the trap... (perhaps it could even be fused shut
and need a welder to prize him loose, although maybe that's pushing it). So
probably 2 hours tops before he reaches hospital. I want the guy to survive
but be out of action for a long while. Ideally I'd like the child who is the
novel's main character to be able to visit him in hospital only a few hours
after he is admitted... is there any chance of that? If the child
managed to sneak in and see him, what would he be likely to see? I've
imagined the leg bandaged and up in a hoist and the guy drained looking and
hooked up to an IV drip, but perhaps this is implausible?
And would the injured guy have fainted from the pain or would he be heavily
sedated once the child got to see him? Would he need a general anaesthetic
for any surgery, or just local? I suppose the surgery could take hours... could
septicaemia have set in? Maybe the foor has to be amputated... I am flexible
as to the outcome but I want it to be grisly in any case!
Thanks very much for this.
And of course, if it is published I will definitely credit you for your help.
Best wishes,
Polly
Answer Well Polly, I thought I had lost you. We can indeed torture a civilian. Why not have the evil landowner set the trap at the obvious crossing beside a washed out bridge? The poor character has to jump a small wash and ends up in the trap. Anyway, it is your novel hurt him as you wish.
You need an anatomy lesson. If the trap is able to close with such force as to shatter the tibia, it undoubtedly shatters the fibula, the adjacent bone. The injury may or may not cause an ischemia. That is, the arteries (the posterior tibial and the anterior tibial arteries) may be crushed or compressed denying the foot and lower leg of nutrient and oxygen rich blood. Ischemic times can vary and a victim may have a salvageable limb after as much as eight hours of compression, especially if the area is cold. England tends to be cold, especially at night. The trap could be removed by anyone with a good oxy-acetylene torch or a fire brigade with a set of hydraulic jaws (the jaws of life) like they use in auto accidents. The victim would have an open comminuted fracture (compound) that required operation, at some point. Sooner is always better. Remember, England enjoys a socialized medical care system. A patient who is otherwise stable might wait several hours for surgery, since a small town would have only one orthopedic surgeon on call at a given time. The patient would receive morphine via a drip and antibiotics. His leg would be in a traction splint with a sterile and bloody dressing in place. He would look like crap. I hope this helps. Please follow-up as necessary.
