From the Richmond Enquirer,
10/27/1862, p. 2, c. 4
NOVEL SURGICAL OPERATION. – We were permitted to examine, a
day or two since, the subject of quite a novel surgical operation performed, a
few days after the battles around Richmond, by Dr. J. C. Clarke, Surgeon in
charge of the 3d Alabama Hospital, in this city. J. W. Wacaster, a member of the
1st North Carolina cavalry, received a severe gunshot wound through
the ankle. By an ingenious and skillfully performed operation, the foot was
removed, leaving the heel with half its bone, which was drawn around and applied
to the end of the leg bones, previously sawed off. The heel has now become
firmly attached in its new positions, thus making the limb almost as long as the
opposite one and avoiding the necessity of either crutch or artificial leg. We
are informed that this operation was first devised by an eminent Russian surgeon
named Pizogoff.
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