The Neighbor's Brain Surgery

      Mr. Editor, will you please give room in your paper to say a few words in regard to the serious accident that happened to our eight-year old son?

     So began an extraordinary “Card of Thanks” printed in the Coffeyville, Kansas Gate City Enterprise October 30, 1885. The Card of Thanks was a standard item in newspapers after the death of a loved one. The family would thank those who helped them in their time of bereavement. But this one was completely different. P.H. Heckert and his wife Sarah farmed in Fawn Creek Township just a few miles outside of Coffeyville. October 6th, little John Heckert was riding on a horse at the farm when he was suddenly thrown, landing in front of his mare. To use Mr. Heckert’s words, he was “struck above the left ear by the toe of one of her shoes, crushing in the skull so the brain oozed out.”

     Newspaper accounts of accidents were far more graphic and grisly than what we see today. It was common for newspapers to describe in detail the scattered remains of a body in train accidents, or the particulars of suicides. Mr. Heckert similarly wasn’t reticent about describing his son's brains oozing out of his skull. 

     His parents “picked him up for dead,” but they soon realized he was breathing. John lay unconscious for five hours. Somehow, he made it through the night. At ten the next morning Dr. W.A. McCully from the county seat, Independence, and their own Dr. William N. Van Camp of Fawn Creek, performed an operation in the family home, probably on the kitchen table. Mr. Heckert described it:

[They] performed the operation of trepanning the skull, taking out all of the broken bones and two drachms of lacerated brain. It was a very difficult operation on account of the way the bones were broken. The inside plate was broken at the lower angle of the parietal bone, and the outside plate at the upper angle of the parietal bone. He was under the influence of chloroform and ether for one hour while the work was being done. 

     Incredibly, John survived the operation. On the seventh day, “congestion of the capillary blood vessels set in,” causing a rush of blood to his brain. “This doubtless would have proved fatal but for the skillful treatment of the doctors.” John’s tongue was partially paralyzed, his father reported, but “his mind is perfectly rational all the time.” Dr. Van Camp visited daily for weeks after the operation, and Dr. McCully came twice. The family kept one or two people constantly by his side around the clock. “He had a strong, robust constitution and patient, cheerful disposition, which helped him through,” his father wrote. 

     In the days before antibiotics any surgery was highly risky. But amazingly, it was not the only operation John would endure. Although he was mentally intact, for the rest of his childhood he suffered from seizures. When John was 18, his family again sought medical help. Dr. McCully had passed away, so they consulted Dr. W.H. Wells. Dr. Wells believed the “fits” were caused by “some foreign substance resting on the brain,” and suggested another operation to “test his theory.” 

     This time, five doctors were involved. The operation was performed at the home of Peter Edsall in Coffeyville. Peter was a former Fawn Creek Township neighbor. During the operation the doctors found a “large, hard lump of clotted blood resting on the gray matter of the brain.” It was removed without incident and the doctors expressed every hope of a successful recovery.

     The Coffeyville Weekly Journal ran a large headline: “TRIUMPH IN SURGERY - A Lump of Clotted Blood Removed From the Brain of John Heckert, of Deering.” The reporter bragged about the skill of Coffeyville’s doctors. 

     The bragging was warranted. Three years later, John had done well enough that he bought a new horse and buggy – just the thing for a young man to go courting in. The country correspondent column reported him out visiting with Miss Fannie Bates. April 1900, they married. Soon the country correspondent columns reported on Mr. and Mrs. Heckert visiting friends. In August 1901 their first child, Thornton, was born. They had two more sons in 1903 and 1906. 

     In August 1910 the newspaper announced that Fannie was hired as a teacher back in her hometown of Independence. In 1915, an article appeared in the paper: “Husband Gone Seven Years.” Fannie filed for divorce. She said John left her seven years ago, leaving her with three children to support. He had not contributed more than $200 towards their support in that time, she said. The divorce was granted in May. Fannie remarried in April 1916. 

     John moved to Idaho where in 1921, he too remarried to Nellie Bates, who coincidentally had the same maiden name as his first wife. After she died in 1939, he moved to Salt Lake City where he worked in construction. He died in at the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City in 1958 at age 79 and was buried beside Nellie in Idaho. There were few people from his generation who could say they survived two brain surgeries in the 1800s and lived to talk about it. 

Note: The Heckerts were neighbors of Lucius Barbour. Lucius was my great-grandfather Clyde’s uncle. Clyde and John were about the same age and knew each other. John’s father, Peter, was a Civil War veteran, like Lucius, and was very active in the Grand Army of the Republic, a veteran’s group. The two attended a G.A.R. encampment together in Cincinnati one year. They both also served as delegates to the Montgomery County Republican convention. Peter Edsall, whose house the second surgery was performed in, was a childhood friend of Clyde's uncle Lucius. Although John is not in my family tree, I wanted to write about him because his was such an amazing story. 

Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023