[Gunshot brain injury--Rishon-le-Zion 1913]

Dr. Leon Pochovski (1869-1965), the first fully trained surgeon to settle in Eretz-Israel, was summoned in 1913 from Jaffa to Rishon-le-Zion to treat a patient who sustained a tangential gunshot injury of the brain from a bullet shot at nearly point blank range, in the right occipital region. As the patient's condition deteriorated intracranial bleeding was diagnosed. Dr. Pochovski did not hesitate to operate and successfully removed an intracerebral hematoma. At first there were no visual symptoms, but on the 11th day there was hemianopia due to dysfunction of the initially uninvolved left hemisphere. It became progressed and then cleared. The hemianopia was associated with diplopia and created hallucinations in the blind field. The mode of treatment and the learned discussion of the uncommon symptomatology demonstrate that the practicing physicians were providing clinical service that did not differ in the technical standards and academic level from that of their colleagues overseas.