People who died from Gangrene

Gangrene

Definition: Localized death and decomposition of body tissue, resulting from either obstructed circulation or bacterial infection.

Gangrene is a condition that occurs when body tissue dies. It is caused by a loss of blood supply due to an underlying illness, injury, and/or infection. Fingers, toes, and limbs are most often affected, but gangrene can also occur inside the body, damaging organs and muscles. There are different types of gangrene and all require immediate medical attention.

Gangrene Types

There are two main types of gangrene:

• Dry gangrene: More common in people with diabetes and autoimmune diseases, dry gangrene usually affects the hands and feet. It develops when blood flow to the affected area is impaired, usually as a result of poor circulation. In this type, the tissue dries up and may be brown to purplish-blue to black in color and often falls off. Unlike other types of gangrene, infection is typically not present in dry gangrene. However, dry gangrene can lead to wet gangrene if it becomes infected.
• Wet gangrene: Unlike dry gangrene, wet gangrene almost always involves an infection. Injury from burns or trauma where a body part is crushed or squeezed can rapidly cut off blood supply to the affected area, causing tissue death and increased risk of infection. The tissue swells and blisters and is called "wet" because of pus. Infection from wet gangrene can spread quickly throughout the body, making wet gangrene a very serious and potentially life-threatening condition if not treated quickly.
  • Internal gangrene: If gangrene occurs inside the body due to blocked blood flow to an internal organ, then it is referred to as internal gangrene. This is usually related to an infected organ such as the appendix or colon.
  • Gas gangrene: Gas gangrene is rare but dangerous. It occurs when infection develops deep inside the body, such as inside muscles or organs, usually as a result of trauma. The bacteria that causes gas gangrene, called clostridia, release dangerous toxins or poisons that wreak havoc throughout the body, along with gas which can be trapped within body tissue. As the condition progresses, the skin may become pale and gray, and make a crackling sound when pressed, due to the gas within the tissue. Gas gangrene warrants immediate medical treatment. Without treatment, death can occur within 48 hours.
  • Fournier's gangrene: Also a rare condition, Fournier's gangrene is caused by an infection in the genital area. Men are affected more often than women. If the infection gets into the bloodstream, a condition called sepsis, it can be life-threatening.

Gangrene Causes

The following conditions are risk factors for the development of gangrene:

• Injury or trauma, such as a crush injury, a severe burn, or frostbite
• Diseases that affect the circulation of blood, such as arteriosclerosis, diabetes, smoking, or Raynaud's disease
• Infection of wounds

History

The first documented case occurred in 1194 AD, when Duke Leopold of Austria contracted the disease in his foot after it had been crushed by his horse. It wasn’t until almost seven centuries later, however, that the disease fully took hold as a widespread and serious problem. The decade of the 1960s proved to have the highest number of recorded cases in history.

Playing a key role in this problem was the American Civil War and the unsanitary conditions that the soldiers would have dealt with. The conditions inside many surgical wards were so poor, the term “hospital gangrene” was coined, as many soldiers contracted the disease during their stay there. Because of the extreme trauma of war injuries, amputation was often necessary, and the large wounds left behind were very susceptible to infection.

Patients were subject not only to poor sanitation but also poor practice by surgeons. The importance of handwashing and the sterilization of surgical instruments was simply not common knowledge. Because of the horrible nature of the gangrene infections that patients contracted, people realized that a change was necessary in surgical protocol. It wasn’t until 1865 that antiseptics were commonly used in surgery, which was a practice that was pioneered by English surgeon Joseph Lister. This did not eradicate all instances of hospital-borne infection, but it was a huge step forward. We can thank gangrene for (indirectly) improving the standards and safety of surgery. The so-called “Hospital Gangrene” of the Civil War is considered an extinct disease now.

John M. Trombold wrote: "Middleton Goldsmith, a surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War, meticulously studied hospital gangrene and developed a revolutionary treatment regimen. The cumulative Civil War hospital gangrene mortality was 45 percent. Goldsmith's method, which he applied to over 330 cases, yielded a mortality under 3 percent."[19] Goldsmith advocated the use of debridement and topical and injected bromide solutions on infected wounds to reduce the incidence and virulence of “poisoned miasma.” Copies of his book were issued to Union surgeons to encourage the use of his methods.

People who died from Gangrene:

• Wikipedia - Pages in category "Deaths from gangrene" – lists 29 people
• Allan Pinkerton, one of the co-founders of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who succumbed to gangrene of the tongue after slipping on the sidewalk. (From: Wikipedia – Gangrene) AND
  • this site (Wikipedia - Allan Pinkerton) says there is some confusion on his cause of death: “Allan Pinkerton died in Chicago on July 1, 1884. It is usually said that Pinkerton slipped on the pavement and bit his tongue, resulting in gangrene. Contemporary reports give conflicting causes, such as that he succumbed to a stroke (he had had one a year earlier) or to malaria, which he had contracted during a trip to the Southern United States.[7] At the time of his death, he was working on a system to centralize all criminal identification records, a database now maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
• Tito, Josip Broz (1893-1980) Yugoslavian Prime Minister & President 1943-1980
• Renaissance warrior Giovanni de’ Medici of the Black Bands (1498-30 Nov 1526) (See: Warrior Medici Died From Gangrene, Not Amputation Site has pix of Giovanni)
• Bobby Leach (1858 - 26 Apr 1926) a world-renowned daredevil. He was known to history as the first person to successfully navigate the Niagara Falls (1911). A fateful tripping accident caused by a banana peel fractured his leg. He eventually died of gangrene. – (See more at: Most Ironic Deaths in History AND Wickipedia – Bobby Leach )
• Leopold V, Duke of Austria (1157-31 Dec 1194) In 1194, Leopold's foot was crushed when his horse fell on him at a tournament in Graz. While advised by his surgeons to have the foot amputated, none declared competence to do so. He ordered his servants to chop it off with an axe, after three swings succeeding. Nonetheless he succumbed to gangrene, still an excommunicate, and was buried at Heiligenkreuz Abbey. (From: Wikipedia – Leopold V, Duke of Austria)

Additional Reading:

• Webmd - Gangrene
• Wikipedia - Gangrene
• eMedicine Health - Gangrene
• A Brief History of Gangrene
• Encyclopedia.com - Gangrene
• Foot Gangrene: What Is It? What Does It Look Like?
• Fournier’s Gangrene (includes pictures)

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