Patton´s accident...

Kai-Petri · #1 (**permalink**) November 20th, 2007, 02:10 PM

Anyone know whether there are X-rays of his neck or the medical report available somewhere? I don´t know if his clothes were cut to pieces in the emergency room but anyone seen Patton´s General´s stars or other "stuff" he wore being sold somewhere?

Slipdigit · #2 (**permalink**) November 20th, 2007, 02:23 PM

I saw a repro of his a/p and lateral c-spine films in a book in a medical library years ago, while I was in nursing school. I don't remember anything about them as I was could barely spell x-ray at the time and it was about 25 years ago.

Martin Bull · #3 (**permalink**) November 20th, 2007, 06:45 PM

Although it doesn't answer the question, there is a very interesting article about the death of Patton in After The Battle #7, complete with photos of the accident location.

Kai-Petri · #4 (**permalink**) July 24th, 2008, 04:27 PM

Here´s Patton´s car...

General George S Patton Car Accident Crash Pictures

Von Poop · #5 (**permalink**) July 24th, 2008, 06:15 PM

I was pottering around this site on his funeral last week:
General Patton's Funeral and Burial Site
It's also got a fascinating article on the development of a war Cemetery on that page.

No X-ray pictures yet but this pdf (same site) of an ATB article (presumably the one Martin mentions) is full of good stuff:
http://www.pattonhq.com/pdffiles/magazines.pdf
Apologies for the long quote, but this seems to be the 'medical' bit:

Quote:

News of the accident had been flashed to Frankfurt, and Major-General Albert W. Kenner,
Patton's Medical Officer in the Western Task Force, now the Theatre Surgeon, arrived within
hours to take charge. Then flying in from London, Brigadier Hugh Cairns, famed professor of
neuro-surgery at Oxford, joined the doctors. Before too long, X-ray pictures gave them the definite
clues they needed for their diagnosis.
"Fracture simple, third cervical vertebrae," it read, "with posterior dislocation of fourth
cervical. Complete paralysis below level of third cervical. Condition critical, prognosis guarded."
In the layman's language this meant that Patton had broken his neck and was paralysed from
the neck down.
Mrs. Patton arrived at 3.30 p.m. on December 11, and when she was taken to her husband,
she found him resting quietly and taking some nourishment. His condition had slightly improved.
His temperature was 100, pulse 70, respiration 22. He greeted his wife with a grateful smile, but
told her:
"I am afraid, Bea, this may be the last time we see each other."
By the 13th Patton had shown such improvement that his doctors began to weigh the
possibility of flying him to Boston. The 130th was a small hospital, but it was as good as any in
Europe, with all the facilities Patton needed, and he was enjoying the best of attention and care. But
Mrs. Patton felt, and Colonel Spurling concurred, that hospitalisation closer to home in Beverley
Hospital, Massachusetts, would be an added boost to his recovery. As a matter of fact, the doctors
expressed guarded optimism as his condition continued to improve, but feared that he might
remain paralysed for life.
Up to the afternoon of December 19, Patton had made what the bulletins described as "very
satisfactory progress." But then, a crisis suddenly developed. He began to experience difficulty in
raising the mucus that was accumulating in his bronchial tubes squeezed by fragments of the
shattered vertebrae. Simultaneously, the pressure on the spinal cord increased.
At 2 p.m. on the 20th, he had an acute attack of breathlessness and pallor, lasting about an
hour. The symptoms convinced Colonel Spurling that Patton had suffered a pulmonary embolism
when a blood clot had got loose in his circulation and was pumped by the heart into his lungs,
virtually destroying one.

Cheers,
Adam

Kai-Petri · #6 (**permalink**) July 25th, 2008, 08:23 AM

Thanx Adam,

Now I´d like to see the autopsy report....