Guess that Medical Procedure
This one is called Trepanning.
The concept of creating small holes in the skull has had an incredibly long and illustrious tradition in Western medicine, and for most of its history it was done without anesthetic. From ancient physicians like Hippocrates, who thought that every fracture of the skull needed a hole bored near it in the first three days, to Prince Phillip of Orange, who went through the process a stunning 17 times, it’s been around for thousands of years. The kit was varied: some physicians drilled through the bone of the skull, while others scraped until a hole gradually formed.
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If you want a b_tching surgery story, take a look at Prince Hal (Henry the Vth) who
. So said John Bradmore MD, and the degree is honorary on my behalf, as he had more bravery than Greg House MD for doing sh_t when the chips were down.
Notice that the arrowhead was six inches deep, and not measured by a lateral head film, just by measuring the amount of wood on the shaft from the entry point to the (missing) arrowhead, which was pretty much stuck in the meat about 10mm to the left of the foramen magnum. He would actually have been in better shape if the arrowhead had fractured and exited the occipital region, as they could yank the whole arrow out piecewise. But it probably neer did get into the braincase, but we don’t know, not having the films.
The problem is foreign bodies in the brain make abscesses, and even if Harry Hotspur’s side had sterilized their arrows, a piece of metal in the braincase would have played havoc with Hank’s recovery.
I’m not going to spoil Dr. John Bradmore’s story, but it puts him in my personal pantheon of WOW doctors to admire. It’s been six centuries since he done what he done, and it’s still WOW. The story’s enough to make the arrogantest neurosurgeon put the term “apprentice” after his MD. Read it.
PS: The patient, after being left with an arrowhead sticking out of his face, did what any honorable heir to the throne would have done – yanked out the stick part of the arrow and kept fighting until left flank which he commanded crushed the enemy defences – and then sought medical attention. First things first. People were different before the days of Press Gainey.
I’ve done three today already. The patients love it!