Setting broken hands

Elven_Fforestydd

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I'm working on a story where the charecter has broken his hand and needs to have it set. They are in a place where there is no access to modern medical falcilities, such as hospitiles. One of the cahrecters is a doctor so he would have supplies with him. How do set broken hand bones?
 

GeorgeK

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what sort of physician?

Setting bones is not something that most modern physicians learn. That is the sort of thing that gets delegated and unless you have hands on experience, you will probably make things worse. If your character physician is not a surgeon, you might want to make them 2 years older and have it that they did 2 years of surgical residency before switching into Medicine.
 

Elven_Fforestydd

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@Tsu Dho Nimh

I was thinking it was in a fight. He insteivvley used his hand to block a knife to the chest, and then the man he was fighting tooyk the oppertunity to attack him by digging his fingers in the the wound, and breaking the wounds.

GeorgeK

Okay, what if it were set in the past a bit, like 200 years?
 

Drachen Jager

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I was thinking it was in a fight. He insteivvley used his hand to block a knife to the chest, and then the man he was fighting tooyk the oppertunity to attack him by digging his fingers in the the wound, and breaking the wounds.

That makes very little sense to me. The other guy broke his hand by digging his fingers in? Strong guy! I could see, MAYBE by a crushing type grip, but not by digging fingers in.

They'd probably know how to splint a broken hand pretty well 200 years ago, in 1820 the first purpose-built splints were invented.
 

Elven_Fforestydd

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Well it was more of hand to hand combat, I haven't figured out wuite how yet, but it is possible to break a person hands. So it was probably more the case of the guy broke the other guy's hand. But I might be rethinking it.
 

Drachen Jager

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Are you talking broken/dislocated fingers or a broken hand? You'd have to get hit by a blunt weapon of some kind unless the hand was pressed against some sort of anvil surface (floor, wall etc.) Could be broken by a kick or something if it had nowhere to go, otherwise the shock would be taken up by the arm simply moving aside. Hands can take a surprising amount of punishment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lupXlg4KaRg
 

Nivarion

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Well it was more of hand to hand combat, I haven't figured out wuite how yet, but it is possible to break a person hands. So it was probably more the case of the guy broke the other guy's hand. But I might be rethinking it.

is it the early 1800's, mid, late? 1700's?

Early there will still by sword fights & duels, rapier and floret. If he's in a rapier duel and the other guy get his blade inside the hand guard he could break bones wrenching it out.

He could get hit with a rifle butt. If you want to go that route, could break them on someone's face. I've seen that one before, and found it hilarious every time.
 

GeorgeK

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It's not likely that a knife wound is going to break a bone, but if it did it was either so sharp or with so much force behind it that the fracture would likely be the least of the problems. The logical wound is a "boxer break", a fracture of the fifth and sometimes also the fourth metacarpals from punching something with a closed fist. It's the classic ER visit on Ash Wednesday, New Year's Day and November first (the morning after big parties, and some people get punchy when drunk). There'd be one guy with a boxer break and a few beds down there'd be another guy with a broken jaw. Being a bone with relatively weak muscles attached to it, the fifth metacarpal is one of the easier bones to set, and one that often is initially treated with a splint by a doctor on call in rural ER's and then the person sees an orthopedist the next day or so. You basically use traction in line with the normal position of the bone until it looks right, apply a cast or splint and check the final position with an X-Ray. That's a bit oversimplified, but it's a reasonable thing for a nonsurgeon to actually have experience with since a lot of medicine residents will work part time in ER's for extra pay, and in rural areas internists and family practicioners might do ER duty as well.
 

K.Bristow

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I had a spiral break of the middle finger metacarpal and two clear breaks of the two bones following. Er Doc hit me with novocaine and grabbed a hold of my wrist and my middle finger knuckle and pulled. As the bone was shattered there wasn't much he could do.Cast for 10 weeks and I can still use all my fingers AND my whole hand. (Car accident -drove my hand thru the radio) mind you, not allowed to hit anything with the broken one anymore. Broke my arm and they did the same thing (only years before the hand). Hope that helps. Oh BTW - the sound that the bone makes when it goes back into place is like a loud pop. (nearly barfed!)