72 P. 590 | Or. | 1903
after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion.
Doctor Ewin, being called, testified, in substance, that he first began treating plaintiff November 14th; that he made a careful examination of him at the time as to his condition and health ; that he found he had some tenderness in the back and left hip, considerable tenderness in the spinal column, and some rigidity of the muscles of the back; that he found no indications of any bruising or any
Doctor Biggers was then called, and testified to the same effect, in substance, as Doctor Ewin, as to the plaintiff’s physical condition, and, among other things, that he was unable to find any objective evidence w'hatever of spinal injury. Thereupon the following question was propounded to him: “Now, doctor, I will ask you if it is not a fact that a party might receive, by being violently thrown down, or by receiving any severe jar or shock such as in a wreck or collision where a train has struck any object with great force, or anything of that kind, is it not a fact that any party might receive a shock that would injure his nervous system and his spinal cord, and that injury
It is first insisted that the question as to whether or not plaintiff was afflicted with railway spine as a result of a nervous shock or fright sustained at the time of the collision is beyond the scope of the complaint; and, second; that the hypothetical question put to Doctor Biggers was not proper, as not being based upon facts in evidence. Of these in their order.
Medical science treats of a condition currently denominated “railway spine,” or, in'a more technical sense, “ traumatic neurosis.” It is latterly denied by strong authority that any such a malady exists as a concussion of the spine or spinal cord, which term is also often used as a synonym for railway spine, but that the symptoms which were supposed to indicate a concussion of the spine are but indications of a concussion of the brain, which may involve a psychic as well as a physical injury, one or both. Such a condition as traumatic neurosis may, it is said, result from actual lesion of the vertebral column, accompanied by immediate and definite signs of such lesion; but it may also result, according to medical science, from a nervous shock or sudden fright, involving a psychical condition as well as a nervous derangement and impairment, where there are no outward physical or objective signs or indications of physical lesion of any character.
A shock is defined by Charles L. Dana, M. D., as a sudden depression of the vital functions, especially of the circulation, due to the nervous exhaustion following an injury or a sudden violent emotion, resulting either in immediate death or in prolonged prostration, and is spoken of as being either corporeal or psychical, relating respectively to the vital powers and the emotions of the mind. Concussion, as applied to the brain, is a jarring of the brain substance without laceration of its tissue, or with only microscopical laceration. As applied to the spine, if it still be admitted
Further errors have been assigned, but, as the case must go back because of those referred to, it is deemed unnecessary that we should consider them now, as the same questions are not likely to arise again. The cause will be reversed, and remanded for such further proceedings as may be proper, not inconsistent with this opinion.
Reversed.