Phoebe Gaunt

Then came the terrible calamity. they had a trap door for an inside entrance to their cellar. It was opened the 14th of March, 1870 or 1871, and Phoebe backed out of another room with a rug frame and fell into the hole, driving the ankle bone through her foot. Her husband, James, and her son, John, pulled her out and sent to Vassar for Dr. Davis who came at once and set it and left them to treat it. In a few days John noticed the ankle bone had turned black. They sent for him again, but it was too late. Mortification had set in. He came every day after this, but soon said she would have to have her leg amputated. Four doctors came on Sunday, March 26, and amputated her leg below her knee. Dr. Davis prescribed a very poor treatment, requiring them to pour cold water on her leg continually, night and day. He came every day but her leg did not heal, and gangrine had set in. He then told them he could do nothing for her. So they went to Caro for Dr. Stevens, an old army surgeon. He said he had used an acid successfully in the army to kill gangrine and probably could save her. After using it a short time her leg commenced to heal. The bone was bare so she had a wooden leg made to set her knee in and strapped around the waist.