Help with cause of death

[JoMaley]

Hi there

I have a young man in my family tree who died at 17.  He was from Wokingham, schooled in Guildford but died in Bloomsbury at his Uncle's house.  They were a wealthy family of solicitors (thought this background may help!)

This is what I think is written:
Acute Necrosis of the feamer 8 days
Pyoemia 7 days

I have googled these terms, but could anyone give me a plain english translation of how this poor chap died.

Thanks

Jo

[Wiggy]

Hi Jo,

Necrosis is dying  and Pyoemia is like Septicaemia  -   So I imagine he had bad infection in the blood stream together with dying back of the bone tissue in the femur - which would not be pleasant!

Well - you asked for plain English!!   not nice though is it!      


Wiggy

[Sandymc47]

Hi
Sounds like the poor lad had gangrene in his leg. This could have been caused because he broke it, or he had diabetes which can cause that from the toes and then it moves up the leg. He would have been in pain and also with a fever, so a dreadful way to die. Nowadays he would have probably had the dead part of his leg cut off and given antibiotics. Seems maybe it wasnt caught earlier enough to cut the leg off and cleanliness of course is the word.
Shame.

regards Sandymc

[JoMaley]

Do you think if it was caused by a broken leg they may have written that?  Do you think he was a bit young to die of diabetes?   I thought it might be bone cancer?

Awful isn't it, I have become a little attached to this chap and have found his grave in Wokingham, he was buried in the family grave.

Sadly, his Uncle's son died at 25 as war correspondent in the Sudan.

Jo

[Wiggy]

What era are you talking Jo?? 

Don't forget Diabetes was not as easily treated way back when!  Are you talking pre-insulin??        He could also have been kicked by a horse, or cut/injured by something - anything which could cause a virulent infection in his leg really! 

Wiggy

[JoMaley]

Any ideas about where I could possibly find an obituary?  The family was from Wokingham but he died in london.

Jo

[JoMaley]

By the way he died in May 1866.
Jo

[Annie65115]

It's not likely to have been due to diabetes - ascending gangrene from diabetes tends to be a late complication of long-term untreated or poorly treated disease, affecting older people who have had diabetes for many years (it's also avoidable these days with diabetic treatment, should anyone be worrying!)

Before the discovery of insulin treatment in the 1920s, young diabetics would die within a few months -not long enough for them to develop longterm complications.

If the bone had been broken, you'd expect the doc to have mentioned it on the certificate but there's no guarantee and it seems to me that many points which would nowadays be consiered salient were omitted from old death certificates! Anyhow, by the 160s, if a leg was so badly broken as to be horribly infected or unsavable, I think amputation would have been attempted.

Would it be possible to scan the relevant part of the cert?