Booth's broken fibula

[davg2000]

I broke my left fibula in February. This has led me to wonder where Booth's fibula was broken. Anyone know?

[Gene C]

Ouch!

Hope you are doing better soon.

[RJNorton]

Dave, I second Gene's thoughts.

Regarding Booth, Dr. Lattimer's book says his fibula break was a few inches above the ankle.

[LincolnMan]

Can you imagine Booth with his broken bone with no pain medication?

[Gene C]

I think he picked up a bottle or two of "pain medication" at the Surratt Tavern.

[LincolnMan]

Yes Gene, you're correct- liquor is quicker- as it is said.

[davg2000]

Thanks, Gene and Roger. I fell down some stairs (!) on February 12, of all days. If Dr. Lattimer is accurate, my break's location is probably in the same place as Booth's, except that I broke the bone in two places. And, Bill, I can't imagine riding on horseback with this break, liquor notwithstanding. Still...if booze was all there was....

[bob_summers]

I believe it was the tibia, not the fibula. In his 4-22-1865 statement to Colonel Wells, Dr. Mudd said “I found there was a straight fracture of the tibia about two inches above the ankle.” The tibia and fibula are both bones in the ankle structure.

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A little more info from George Alfred Townsend’s 4-16-1885 interview of Dr. George Mudd, Sam Mudd’s cousin:

“There are two bones in your leg, the tibia and the fibula; it is very seldom that the fibula is broken alone. The larger bone receives the shock or fracture, and while it often breaks the other bone with it, the smaller bone is generally broken by a very peculiar kind of twist. The strange kind of leap that Booth made from that box probably threw his weight toward his heel somehow, so that the rear bone broke. Now, that wound required no setting. You do not put the leg in splints for a fracture of the fibula. That bone is held in its place by very powerful muscles, and it would soon set of itself, with rest; but you see that man had been riding hard for three or four hours after his crime, and, of course, he felt uncomfortable, the ends of the bone perhaps prodding the tendons and muscles. All that Sam Mudd did with the leg, I suppose, was to wrap it around with something, and tell the man to rest it, and then he had him a crutch made by some one on the premises.”

[RJNorton]

Bob, could Dr. Mudd have been wrong? From what I have read a broken tibia is much more serious than a broken fibula. Remember that the original stories from Ford's eyewitnesses didn't even say Booth had a limp as he moved across the stage. (Only in later years did a limp enter the stories.) I read somewhere that this would have been impossible had Booth broken his tibia, not his fibula. In the article it said a person might not even be able to walk unaided on a broken tibia, let alone escape from the theater.

Of course if the break occurred during the horse fall maybe I (and Dr. Lattimer) could be wrong. But I still feel it was a broken fibula no matter where it happened.

I know I once saw a football game in which a player broke his tibia. He could not even get up and had to be carted off the field.

Here is what Dr. Barnes wrote in his account of the autopsy:

"The left leg and foot were encased in an appliance of splints and bandages, upon the removal of which, a fracture of the fibula (small bone of the leg) 3 inches above the ankle joint, accompanied by considerable ecchymosis, was discovered."

[Eva Elisabeth]

I second Roger as for getting away from the stage - and if it happened due to the horse fall and the horse rolling on the leg, why did the thinner fibula not break? And I see it way more likely Dr. Mudd was or purposely told wrong than Dr. Barnes.

[Eva Elisabeth]

As for the (second hand - while diary is first hand -) horse fall statements, Art Loux' reasoning makes sense to me - Mudd and Lloyd stated Booth telling this as the cause because admittedly knowing of the jump on the stage would have meant to admit that they knowingly had helped the assassin. Likewise by the tibia diagnosis Mudd likely tried making believe he had helped a different injured man.

[bob_summers]

Bob, could Dr. Mudd have been wrong?

Yes. The autopsy doctors are undoubtedly correct. They had plenty of time to carefully examine the leg, while Dr. Mudd was working quickly by lantern-light with an uncooperative patient.

[brtmchl]

I remember, about 12 years ago breaking my foot. I slipped a fell off of some stairs due to ice and landed on my back. I sat up and looked around, embarrassed for the fall. I never felt a thing. I tried to get up and then noticed my foot just flopped around (much like Robin Ventura's when he slid into home plate years ago). I later learned that the only thing holding my foot to my ankle were ligaments. At no time that first night was I in pain. Maybe it was a combination of adrenaline and shock, but I always think of that when I wonder how Booth could have rushed from the stage and rode all night. His adrenaline must have been intense.
I imagine his pain was much more severe the following day, and I cringe at the discomfort he must have felt hiding out in the thicket.

[Eva Elisabeth]

With him the fight-or-flight system (suppressing pain until the first rest) certainly would have set in. Despite I think the pain came greatly with the increased swelling.

[Miss_Bellatrix]

With him the fight-or-flight system (suppressing pain until the first rest) certainly would have set in. Despite I think the pain came greatly with the increased swelling.

I totally agree with you, Eva. As long as the adrenaline was going, he would have been able to keep going without noticing too much pain perhaps. But when he stopped or slowed down, that's when it would have kicked in.