The calm exterior of the neatly dressed, elderly woman in the chair crumbled. Her lined face twisted as the tears flowed down her face and sobs racked her body.
“I watched him die in the back room. He was only three years old.”
The doctor in the other chair nodded encouragingly but did not say anything.
“He stood on a rusty nail in the backyard. Within a few days he became ill with a high fever and it soon became apparent that there was something very wrong with him. The doctor came but there were no antibiotics available in those early days of the war so there was little he could do to stop the infection that swept through Grant’s child’s body.”
The doctor wrote some notes on the startlingly white page of his notebook.
“We watched him die an agonizing death. All the muscles in his frail body spasmed until eventually, the extensor muscles of his back arched backwards and locked, his arms flexed to his chest with his small fists clenched. He died with his baby teeth bared and an unintentional and horrendous grin on his face. They call it the grinning death.”
Her words stopped and she drew in a deep and shuddering breath.
1809 Painting by Sir Charles Bell entitled “Tetanus Following Gunshot Wounds” depicting a soldier suffering from tetanus.
This piece was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly photo challenge, https://scvincent.com/2018/11/08/thursday-photo-prompt-calm-writephoto/
Gruesome. I remember my mother explaining why I needed a tetanus shot…after stepping on a nail in the garden…
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I am sure you are glad you had one after reading this.
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So very sad and horrific. Well written Robbie 💜
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Thank you, Willow. More bits of information from my WiP.
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💜
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So sad …
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Thank you, Ritu.
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Grim Robbie but very believable
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Thank you, Geoff. My new book is a bit grim as Lucifer has a staring role.
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Sad, but nicely done. Love the way the first two sentences open your story.
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Thank you, Priscilla, I am glad you liked the opening.
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A very poignant reminder Robbie. Well done.
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Thank you, Brigid.
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“The grinning death”…..visual and horrific. Well done, Robbie.
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Thank you, Mae, it is rather awful.
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Roberta, your writing is superb. This story is so real and I know those things did and do happen. My 5 year old brother, at the time, had blood poisoning and if it wasn’t for antibiotics I can’t imagine how awful it would have been.
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Thank you, Karen. That is a lovely compliment. My son had blood poisoning when he was about 6 years old and he was terribly ill.
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Roberta, my pleasure and I am so grateful that we live in a time when antibiotics are available to save lives and we have Tetanus shots too to help save lives. I can’t imagine what it was like for families that loss loved ones, usually small children, to blood poisoning. Heartbreaking. Karen:)
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Thanks, Karen. My son, Greg, had blood-poisoning as a child. It was terrible. He did recover but was in hospital for four days.
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Roberta, that must have been one of the most terrifying events for you and for your son Greg. Thank goodness you knew what to look for, not that many people do know what they are looking at, it may seem too insignificant, at first, and then it maybe too late. Karen.
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Reblogged this on K. D. Dowdall and commented:
Re-blogged on Pen and Paper
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Thank you for sharing.
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Roberta, my pleasure and something that parents should really watch carefully when the little ones come inside from playing outside with rusty dirty things that they find fascinating to play with. It is shocking when a tiny little scratch can cause such a terrible outcome. Thank you again, Karen 🙂
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Thank you, Karen. It is astonishing how something so small can have such a tragic outcome.
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A gruesome death indeed, Robbie. We take so much for granted of what now seems like ordinary, simple medicine. Wishing you a satisfying Saturday. Hugs.
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Sometimes it is good for people to remember how much better life is now. No horrible tetanus deaths in the first world anymore. Have a great day, Teagan.
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Growing up “rusty nail” was always the threat, and promise, of lock-jaw and hospitalization. To die from this must have been agonizing. I always thought it was the “rust” part that caused the illness. Only later did I learn of the common dirt bacteria that is the source. For millennia humans died of this (and still do). There must be an extra couple of billion people on the planet these days due to modern medicine.
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You are definitely right about there being many more people due to modern medicine. More than a couple of billion, probably more like 5 billion. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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It’s a toss up between medicine and fossil fuels. Without nearly free energy (coal and crude oil) the world would have starved — and would starve today. (I debate such things with my cronies…)
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Yes, you have a good point there. Thank you.
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