File:Pvt. Julius Fabry (SP 276), National Museum of Health and Medicine (3373779753).jpg

Pvt. Julius Fabry (SP 276), National Museum of Health and Medicine

Description: Thirty-eight year old Private Julius Fabry in 1870 after his fifth operation, when Dr. George Otis successfully reamputated Fabry's leg at his hip. Note the removed diseased bone on the table to his left.

History on verso: "Surgeon General’s Office. Army Medical Museum. Photograph No. 276. Successful Reamputation at the Left Hip for Chronic Osteomyelitis of the Femur. Private Julius Fabry, Battery K, 4th U.S. Artillery, aged thirty-eight years, had his leg shattered by a large projectile, at Deep Bottom, Virginia, August 16, 1864. It was amputated at the place of election on the following morning by Surgeon G.W. Jackson, 53d Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was sent to Satterlee Hospital, Philadelphia, on August 20th, and his stump being inflamed, and very painful, disarticulation at the knee joint was performed by Drs. Atlee and Roe, and subsequently the protruding condyles were resected. On May 22, 1865, he was transferred to his regimental headquarters at Fort Washington, having necrosis of the femur. When the regiment changed post, in January, 1866, Fabry was discharged from service, and entered the Soldier’s Home, as a pensioner. For the next four years, he suffered greatly from the recurrence of abscesses in the thigh, with detachment of necrosed bone. In October, 1867, a palliative and exploratory operation was performed by Assistant Surgeon J.S. Billings, U.S. Army, and a portion of necrosed bone was removed; but it was found that the entire shaft of the femur had perished and had become surrounded by an immense involucrum of foliaceous callus, and exarticulation at the hip was advised as the only radical remedy. It was not till a year and a half afterwards that the patient accepted this resource. On May 15, 1870, Assistant Surgeon George A. Otis, assisted by Surgeons Laub and Norris, Assistant Surgeons Woodward and Billings, and Doctors N.S. Lincoln, J.D. Barnes and others, amputated at the hip by a single anterior flap method. The patient was about on crutches in twenty-one days, and made a good recovery. In January, 1871, he was in excellent health. A full account of the case is given in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for that date. Photographed at the Army Medical Musuem. By order of the Surgeon General: George A. Otis, Ass’t Surg. U.S.A., Curator, A.M.M."

Date: circa 1870

Photo ID: SP 276

Source Collection: OHA 82: Surgical Photographs

Repository: National Museum of Health and Medicine, Otis Historical Archives