Improvised arm break treatment in medieval ages

[pizzazzical]

Hello! I have multiple questions on this one scenario, I hope that's all right :)

Setting: I am writing a piece set in the "dark ages" around the time of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Arthurian legends. In the fandom canon knowledge and treatment of diseases and injuries is more advanced than it actually was at the time. For example there is knowledge of

Comments

[sollersuk]

Geoffrey of Monmouth was writing after the Norman Conquest, describing a society much like his own, so I would say "Medieval" rather than "Dark Ages". If you really do mean "Dark Ages", what you need to get hold of is Anglo-Saxon leechdom texts.

First, the fall itself. The horse rearing would not of itself cause him to fall, as saddles from the Roman period throughout the Middle Ages were constructed in (different) ways that kept the rider from falling out of the saddle. Indeed, fighting with warhorses often included deliberately causing the horse to rear and trample the enemy. The problem with these saddles was that if the horse fell, the rider couldn't "bail out" and would have one leg crushed.

Medieval medicine was not good at reducing fractures, and I've seen broken forearms where the radius and ulna have fused, meaning that the wrist could not rotate. If the humerus was broken, there would be shortening of the upper arm and again interference with mobility. Healed fractured bones from this period typically show muscle attachments reduced in size, indicating that the muscles have wasted.

If it's a compound fracture, the biggest problem would be infection. Blood loss might be controlled by something used as a tourniquet, but this would of course add to the risk of gangrene. Cleaning the wounds would be the highest priority, as if infection did set in there was little that could be done about it.

Mythical beasts presumably have as many bacteria in their mouths as real ones, so the bite would certainly become infected. I wouldn't give much for his chances of survival for any period between the end of the Roman legionary hospitals and the 20th century.

[sollersuk]

Further clarification about the riding (I have to put this in quickly as I am off on holiday today): I wondered if you were thinking of him riding bareback to round up the other horses. IRL at the time, there seems to have been no tradition of bareback riding in North West Europe; he would saddle up one horse that was in the stables to fetch the rest from wherever they were grazing. Horses appear not to have been used to it either, and would be alarmed by an attempt to mount in a really unconventional way. And assuming he has survived the bite but is still recovering, I'm not sure whether he would be able to vault onto the horse's back with an injured shoulder, though he would be able to mount using the stirrups.

And in much of Europe, the situation would be unlikely. Semi-wild ponies grazed free, but horses were too valuable to be left far from the habitation. It would be like parking tanks unattended a couple of miles from base in hostile territory. They would be put out to graze nearby, and assuming that they were wearing halters of some sort, he would probably have walked back leading them a few at a time. If they weren't wearing halters already, that would be the first thing he would see to.

[autumn_belias]

also the terrain doesn't make for droving (is droving even the right word when talking of horses? I know it for other livestock but... Oo), most of Europe wasn't flat and grasslands, forests dominated and where they didn't people would have tilled the earth for fields and no sane person would drove animals through fields used for food production, that's the death of commoners and nobility alike.

and as an afterthought:
I'm also unsure he HIMSELF would go fetch the horses instead of letting a stablehand do that, unless it was some covert operation bit.

[pizzazzical]

Hello, sorry about the confusion, I was being unclear. Basically the two of them rode out for some fresh air etc. and tied their horses up after dismounting. A few hours later the man goes back to fetch the horses but since there's two of them (and he has a bad shoulder) he basically loses both of them and he goes after them. When the horse rears he is on foot, which is why he fell over and sustained the break. The confusion is all my fault though so sorry about that!

Also, the bite from the mythical beast was healed using magic, so the wound is 100% closed up and free from infection, but his muscles/tendons/nerves etc. are still healing.

Thanks a lot about the information about the consequences of the fracture. I think one arm shorter than the other would be not too bad. Is there any possibility, considering the difference between actual medieval medicine and the more advanced techniques in canon, that he would still have pretty good mobility and strength if the arm was set properly?

Also, sorry about the dark ages/medieval mix-up. Just shows how bad I am at history and all that :x