Was Mother Bickerdike indignant? Well, I should say she was!

[SWMODave]

Fatally injured by a shell that never touched him.

Virginia Enterprise October 6, 1905

 

[A. Roy]

Could abdominal damage like this have been the result of a blast wave? I see some research indicating a victim could suffer internal injury without perforation or direct contact with shrapnel (if I understand correctly):

>>
Primary blast injury is caused by the blast wave moving through the body. Since only high order explosives create a blast wave, primary blast injuries are unique to high order explosions. The blast wave causes damage to more extensively to air-filled organs. The resulting barotrauma can affect the lungs, auditory organs, the eye, brain, and gastrointestinal tract.

Blast ear – tympanic membrane rupture and middle ear damage
Blast lung – injury to the lung parenchyma, can have delayed symptom presentation
Blast brain – injury to brain parenchyma, even without direct injury to the head
Blast eye – rupture of the globe of the eye
Blast belly – injury causing abdominal hemorrhage and perforation (immediate and delayed). It can also cause injury to solid organs and testicular rupture.

Blast Injuries

Blast Injuries PubMed published article

www.statpearls.com

<<

PS -- Maybe Mother Bickerdike knew something about blastwave injuries.

Roy B.

 

[Rhea Cole]

In the case of the passing artillery round, it is not the high pressure shock wave in front of the object, it is the relative vacuum that follows that does the damage. It is an effect not dissimilar to a house blowing up due to the very low pressure of a tornado. The pressure inside the body can force internal organs out of body cavities. Fatal brain hemorrhaging can occur as well.

 

[A. Roy]

In the case of the passing artillery round, it is not the high pressure shock wave in front of the object, it is the relative vacuum that follows that does the damage. In an effect not dissimilar to a house blowing up due to the very low pressure of a tornado. The pressure inside the body can force internal organs out of body cavities. Fatal Hemorrhaging can occur as well.

That makes more sense than a blast wave in this case, since no explosion was described, but rather a passing shell.

R