Injury to the lower jaw - what would be the consequences?

One of my characters suffers an injury where a spike pierced his lower jaw and severed his tongue. Ignoring the fact that he may not have survived this wound under normal circumstances (eldritch powers are a useful boon at times), what would be the consequences of having such an injury?

Some more information: the character is an adult male living in mid-1920's Boston. He is to be classed as a normal human for the purposes of living with this injury. In specifics, the spike punctured through his jaw, behind the chin and sunk into the upper part of his mouth, severing the tendons connecting his tongue on the way. Money not a large issue for the people taking care of him.

The main question I have is what would living with this injury be like on a physical day-to-day basis and what hindrances might occur from the time period in question?

Bonus points for answers including

• What medical care for this injury would be provided in this era,
• How easy it will be for him to communicate with or without sign language,
• Whether his job as a police sergeant will be affected (and how so) and
• How easy it will be for him to get assistance in learning sign language, what with deaf schools in 1920 being primarily oral education based.

posted almost 5 years ago

Henderson‭

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