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Re: Sgt. William W. Smith Co. G 5th Texas

Tom -

Amazing!

Here's another case from just a few years later:

Perhaps one of the most incredible recuperations from a serious head wound was reported by Dr. C.C. Gray, an Army surgeon assigned to the Dakotas in the late 1860s. Dr. Gray wrote that Private John Krumholz of Company H, 22nd Infantry, was wounded at Fort Sully on June 3, 1869, by an arrow that entered his left eye and penetrated the skull for two inches. The soldier was admitted to the fort's hospital the same day.

After he was anesthetized with chloroform, an operation was begun to remove the point. Surgeons sawed nearly all the way through his skull with a Hey's saw until they reached the arrowhead, which they removed. Krumholz's postoperative care consisted of rest, a diet low in calories, elevation of the head, applications of cold to the operative site and saline cathartics. The soldier returned to active duty four days later, June 7, 1869!
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Henrietta Stockwell, "The Arrows that Wounded the West," Wild West Magazine, December 1998

M C Toyer

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Sgt. William W. Smith Co. G 5th Texas
Re: Sgt. William W. Smith Co. G 5th Texas