Scott mentions the instance of a woman thirty-four years old who was gored by an infuriated ox while in the ninth month of her eighth pregnancy. The horn entered at the anterior superior spinous process of the ilium, involving the parietes and the uterus. The child was extruded through the wound about half an hour after the occurrence of the accident. The cord was cut and the child survived and thrived, though the mother soon died. Stalpart tells the almost incredible story of a soldier's wife who went to obtain water from a stream and was cut in two by a cannonball while stooping over. A passing soldier observed something to move in the water, which, on investigation, he found to be a living child in its membranes. It was christened by order of one Cordua and lived for some time after.
Postmortem Cesarean Section.—The possibility of delivering a child by Cesarean section after the death of the mother has been known for a long time to the students of medicine. In the olden times there were laws making compulsory the opening of the dead bodies of pregnant women shortly after death. Numa Pompilius established the first law, which was called "les regia," and in later times there were many such ordinances. A full description of these laws is on record. Life was believed possible after a gestation of six months or over, and, as stated, some famous men were supposed to have been born in this manner. Francois de Civile, who on great occasions signed himself "trois fois enterre et trois fois par le grace de Dieu ressucite," saw the light of the world by a happy Cesarean operation on his exhumed mother. Fabricius Hildanus and Boarton report similar instances. Bourton cites among others the case of an infant who was found living twelve hours after the death of his mother. Dufour and Mauriceau are two older French medical writers who discuss this subject. Flajani speaks of a case in which a child was delivered at the death of its mother, and some of the older Italian writers discuss the advisability of the operation in the moribund state before death actually ensues. Heister writes of the delivery of the child after the death of the mother by opening the abdomen and uterus.
Harris relates several interesting examples. In Peru in 1794 a Sambi woman was killed by lightning, and the next day the abdomen was opened by official command and a living child was extracted. The Princess von Swartzenberg, who was burned to death at a ball in Paris in 1810, was said to have had a living child removed from her body the next day. Like all similar instances, this was proved to be false, as her body was burned beyond the possibility of recognition, and, besides, she was only four months pregnant. Harris mentions another case of a young woman who threw herself from the Pont Neuf into the Seine. Her body was recovered, and a surgeon who was present seized a knife from a butcher standing by and extracted a living child in the presence of the curious spectators. Campbell discusses this subject most thoroughly, though he advances no new opinions upon it.
Duer tabulates the successful results of a number of cases of Cesarean section after death as follows:—
Children extracted
between 1 and 5 minutes after death of the mother, 21
" " 10 and 15 " " " " " " 13
" " 15 and 30 " " " " " " 2
" " 1 hour " " " " " " 2
" " 2 hours " " " " " " 2
Garezky of St. Petersburg collected reports of 379 cases of Cesarean section after death with the following results: 308 were extracted dead; 37 showed signs of life; 34 were born alive. Of the 34, only 5 lived for any length of time. He concludes that if extracted within five or six minutes after death, they may be born alive; if from six to ten minutes, they may still be born alive, though asphyxiated; if from ten to twenty-six minutes, they will be highly asphyxiated. In a great number of these cases the infant was asphyxiated or dead in one minute. Of course, if the death is sudden, as by apoplexy, accident, or suicide, the child's chances are better. These statistics seem conscientious and reliable, and we are safe in taking them as indicative of the usual result, which discountenances the old reports of death as taking place some time before extraction.
Peuch is credited with statistics showing that in 453 operations 101 children gave signs of life, but only 45 survived.
During the Commune of Paris, Tarnier, one night at the Maternite, was called to an inmate who, while lying in bed near the end of pregnancy, had been killed by a ball which fractured the base of the skull and entered the brain. He removed the child by Cesarean section and it lived for several days. In another case a pregnant woman fell from a window for a distance of more than 30 feet, instant death resulting; thirty minutes at least after the death of the mother an infant was removed, which, after some difficulty, was resuscitated and lived for thirteen years. Tarnier states that delivery may take place three-quarters of an hour or even an hour after the death of the mother, and he also quotes an extraordinary case by Hubert of a successful Cesarean operation two hours after the mother's death; the woman, who was eight months pregnant, was instantly killed while crossing a railroad track.
Hoffman records the case of a successful Cesarean section done ten minutes after death. The patient was a woman of thirty-six, in her eighth month of pregnancy, who was suddenly seized with eclampsia, which terminated fatally in ten hours. Ten minutes after her last respiration the Cesarean section was performed and a living male child delivered. This infant was nourished with the aid of a spoon, but it died in twenty-five hours in consequence of its premature birth and enfeebled vitality.
Green speaks of a woman, nine months pregnant, who was run over by a heavily laden stage-coach in the streets of Southwark. She died in about twenty minutes, and in about twenty minutes more a living child was extracted from her by Cesarean section. There was a similar case in the Hopital St. Louis, in Paris, in 1829; but in this case the child was born alive five minutes after death. Squire tells of a case in which the mother died of dilatation of the aorta, and in from twenty to thirty minutes the child was saved. In comment on this case Aveling is quoted as saying that he believed it possible to save a child one hour after the death of the mother. No less an authority than Playfair speaks of a case in which a child was born half an hour after the death of the mother. Beckman relates the history of a woman who died suddenly in convulsions. The incision was made about five minutes after death, and a male child about four pounds in weight was extracted. The child exhibited feeble heart-contractions and was despaired of. Happily, after numerous and persistent means of resuscitation, applied for about two and a half hours, regular respirations were established and the child eventually recovered. Walter reports a successful instance of removal of the child after the death of the mother from apoplexy.
Cleveland gives an account of a woman of forty-seven which is of special interest. The mother had become impregnated five months after the cessation of menstruation, and a uterine sound had been used in ignorance of the impregnation at this late period. The mother died, and one hour later a living child was extracted by Cesarean section. There are two other recent cases recorded of extraction after an hour had expired from the death. One is cited by Veronden in which the extraction was two hours after death, a living child resulting, and the other by Blatner in which one hour had elapsed after death, when the child was taken out alive.
Cases of rupture of the uterus during pregnancy from the pressure of the contents and delivery of the fetus by some unnatural passage are found in profusion through medical literature, and seem to have been of special interest to the older observers. Benivenius saw a case in which the uterus ruptured and the intestines protruded from the vulva. An instance similar to the one recorded by Benivenius is also found in the last century in Germany. Bouillon and Desbois, two French physicians of the last century, both record examples of the uterus rupturing in the last stages of pregnancy and the mother recovering. Schreiber gives an instance of rupture of the uterus occasioned by the presence of a 13-pound fetus, and there is recorded the account of a rupture caused by a 20-pound fetus that made its way into the abdomen. We find old accounts of cases of rupture of the uterus with birth by the umbilicus and the recovery of the woman. Vespre describes a case in which the uterus was ruptured by the feet of the fetus.
Farquharson