DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0192
170 kirby’s WONDERFUL MUSEUM.' /
twelve months before it came to pass. In my emaciated
condition I was certain that it was not possible for me to
hold out half the time, and knowing that I must be a very
great cripple with the loss of my heel bone, I came to a de-
termined resolution to have my leg taken off, and appointed
the very next day for the operation; but no surgeon came
near me. I sincerely believe they wished to perform a cure^
but being, as I thought, the best judge of my own feelings, I
was resolved, this time, to be guided by my own opinion ’
accordingly, on the 2d of May, ]77O, my leg was taken off a
little below the knee. Though I had so long endured the
rod of affliction, misfortunes still followed me. About three
hours after the amputation had been performed, and when I
was quiet in bed, I found myself nearly fainting with the
loss of blood; the ligatures had all given way, and the arte-
ries had bled a considerable time before it was discovered.
By this time the wound was inflamed j nevertheless, I was
under the necessity of once more submitting to the operation
of the needle, and the principal artery was sewed up four
different times before the blood was stopped. I suffered
mach for two or three days, not daring to take a wink of
sleep ; for the moment I shut my eyes, my stump, though
constantly held by the nurse, would take such convulsive mo-
tions, that I really think a stab to the heart could not be at-
tended with greater pain. My blood too, wras become bo
very poor and thin, that it absolutely drained through the
wound near a fortnight after my leg was cut off. I lay for
eighteen days and nights in one position, not daring to move,
lest the ligature should again give way; but I coxdd endure
it no longer, and ventured to turn myself in bed, contrary to
the advice of my surgeon, which I happily effected, and never
felt greater pleasure in my life. Six weeks after the amputa-
tion, I went out in a sedan chair for the benefit of the air,
feeing exactly nine months from the day on which I fell into
twelve months before it came to pass. In my emaciated
condition I was certain that it was not possible for me to
hold out half the time, and knowing that I must be a very
great cripple with the loss of my heel bone, I came to a de-
termined resolution to have my leg taken off, and appointed
the very next day for the operation; but no surgeon came
near me. I sincerely believe they wished to perform a cure^
but being, as I thought, the best judge of my own feelings, I
was resolved, this time, to be guided by my own opinion ’
accordingly, on the 2d of May, ]77O, my leg was taken off a
little below the knee. Though I had so long endured the
rod of affliction, misfortunes still followed me. About three
hours after the amputation had been performed, and when I
was quiet in bed, I found myself nearly fainting with the
loss of blood; the ligatures had all given way, and the arte-
ries had bled a considerable time before it was discovered.
By this time the wound was inflamed j nevertheless, I was
under the necessity of once more submitting to the operation
of the needle, and the principal artery was sewed up four
different times before the blood was stopped. I suffered
mach for two or three days, not daring to take a wink of
sleep ; for the moment I shut my eyes, my stump, though
constantly held by the nurse, would take such convulsive mo-
tions, that I really think a stab to the heart could not be at-
tended with greater pain. My blood too, wras become bo
very poor and thin, that it absolutely drained through the
wound near a fortnight after my leg was cut off. I lay for
eighteen days and nights in one position, not daring to move,
lest the ligature should again give way; but I coxdd endure
it no longer, and ventured to turn myself in bed, contrary to
the advice of my surgeon, which I happily effected, and never
felt greater pleasure in my life. Six weeks after the amputa-
tion, I went out in a sedan chair for the benefit of the air,
feeing exactly nine months from the day on which I fell into