MEDICO-LEGAL REPORT
Warsaw, 14 September 1945. Investigating judge Mikołaj Halfter, acting on the motion of the prosecutor and through the agency of expert medical witnesses, Prof. Adam Gruca (son of Kazimierz and Dorota, director of the Central Institution of Trauma Surgery, temporarily residing at the Baby Jesus Hospital in Warsaw, no relationship to the parties, no criminal record) and Prof. Dr. Wiktor Grzywno-Dąbrowski (head of the Forensic Medicine Department of the University of Warsaw, resident of Warsaw, Grochowska Street 24b), a sworn-in expert witness, conducted a medico-legal examination of Jadwiga Dzido, aged 27, Roman Catholic, a student, resident of Warsaw, Piusa XI Street 24, currently at the Central Institution of Trauma Surgery.
ASKED BY THE EXPERT MEDICAL WITNESS, THE PATIENT STATED AS FOLLOWS: her father died of an illness when she was a child. Her mother died in an airstrike in Łuków in 1944. During childhood, she suffered from measles, scarlet fever, also frunuculosis.
No medical conditions since the age of seven. First menstruation period at the age of thirteen, regular cycles ever since, 3-4/28 type, moderate to profuse, painless. No menstruations between March 1941 and April 1945 (the period of camp internment). Regular menstruation since April, the latest between 28 August – 1 September 1945. The patient has never been pregnant. Venera negat.
On 22 November, when at Ravensbrück, Mecklenburg, when fully fit, the patient received an injection ? in the upper part of the right calf, administered by Dr. Gebhard and Fischer, his assistant. The procedure was performed when the patient was under intravenous anesthesia. After the injection, the patient developed edema in the right crus and experienced burning pain. Over the next four days, she had a high fever and was unconscious. Fellow prisoners told her that four days after the injection she underwent some procedure (incisions?), which resulted in profuse suppuration. The patient cannot recall any details concerning the period of three weeks following the injection. The wounds healed in February 1943. She started to walk in March, with no flexibility in the knee and numbness in the right foot. The knee regained flexibility after some time.
CURRENT CONDITION: lucid, proper physique, medium-strong. Small adenomas under the right armpit. Throat pale pink, tonsils not enlarged. Resonant percussion sound and correct vesicular murmur above the lungs, lower lung borders correct and motile.
Heart not enlarged, rhythmic activity, clear heart sounds. Pulse 74/mm. Pressure 120/85 mmHg. Abdominal cavity: soft abdominal integuments. No visible resistance or tenderness to palpation. Liver and spleen non-palpable.
LOCAL CONDITION: The lateral-posterior side of the right femur and crus bears a scar, which begins 3 cm above the left femoral condyle and runs down beyond the fibular head, and then parallel to its posterior-lateral side, ending 7 cm above the outer ankle. Toward its upper part, the scar is 7 cm wide, then it tapers off to 2 cm – firmly coalesced with the base, immoveable, tender to palpation.
Another scar on the edge of the posterior-external side of the crus; it runs parallel to the first one, 4 cm off. It begins 2 cm below the right medial condyle of the tibia, toward the posterior part, and ends 8 cm above the inner ankle. Average width of 1.5 cm. The entire scar is moveable together with the skin.
KNEE MOVABILITY: maximum flexion of 90°. Full extension. Foot adducted. Lack of active dorsiflexion, free plantarflexion, full spectrum of passive movements. Active adduction and eversion correct. Lack of active abduction and inversion. Movement of toes: plantarflexion only. Motor strength good.
Leg circumference:right: left:
| 1. | At the upper patella edge | 34.5 cm 35 cm |
| 2. | 7 cm below tibial tuberoses | 28 cm 35 cm |
| 3. | 14 cm above tibial tuberoses | 26 cm 34.5 cm |
| 4. | 7 cm above external ankle | 20.5 cm 23 cm |
X-ray photo of the right crus shows periosteal thickening in the medial part of the fibula, visible in the anterior-posterior photo.
Neurological examination: right foot in adducted position.
Right foot colder than left. Anterolateral group paralysis. Reflexes: right patellar reflex weaker, impossible to elicit right Achilles reflex. Acoustic examination revealed no excitability of the fibular nerve and the muscles it supplies. Tibial nerve: weaker reflex; (partial) dystrophic response of toe flexors. Result: complete damage of the fibular nerve and partial damage of tibial nerve on the right.
The examination was thus concluded.
When asked specifically, the expert medical witnesses concur: based on the anamnesis and the examination of the scar, we conclude that patient Jadwiga Dzido was injected (likely after having her calf muscle damaged with a blunt instrument, an assumption based on the administration of short-term anesthesia) with highly pathogenic bacteria, such as gas phlegmon, and then, four days later, a deep incision was made, reaching all the way to the bone, resulting in damage to the main nerve trunks just below the knee.
There are no observable global effects of said procedures. The scars constitute a severe deformation of the right leg and permanently impair the functions of the right lower extremity. The consequences of the injection of pathogenic microorganisms, whereby global infection developed and the patient’s sensorium was suppressed, constituted a life- threatening condition for Jadwiga Dzido for about three weeks.
The report was read out.