WAUPACA COUNTY NEWS

June 22, 1922

 

VICTIM OF LOCKJAW

 

            Fred Durant, sixteen years old, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Durant, 524 Granite street, is in a critical condition at his home a victim of tetanus, commonly called lockjaw, the result of having stepped on a nail on June 7^th, which penetrated his foot.  The injury was not thought serious at the time but nine days later tetanus developed and four days later the jaws became locked.  The disease is developed by a germ which finds its way into the spinal column through the blood, and is in most cases brought about by wounds of a punctured nature, and is generally followed by death within five days of the time the jaws become locked.

            The Durant boy, however, has now gone for a period of nine days and he has a fighting chance for recover.  Ninety thousand units of anti-tetanus serum has been injected into the young man’s blood to date.  The case is an unique one and has attracted a considerable amount of attention among the medical profession.  The young man is under the care of Dr. C.W. Andrews of this city.

            As in tetanus cases, the slightest noise or jar causes the patient to go into muscular convulsions, the streets surrounding the Durant residence have been closed to traffic.