"True Grit" Medical Matters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tapeworm

Rooster is sitting around at night drinking and talking to Mattie and LaBoeuf. He relates how he was a pretty fair hand with a jerk line when he was freighting in Colorado. He tells them he worked for a fellow who was carrying around a twenty one foot tapeworm. He went on to say that the man's wife commenced to running the business and he was not about to work for her.

Answer: Epidural hematoma

LaBoeuf rescues Mattie from Tom Chaney, disarms him, and sends him to wait off to the side, while they watch Rooster face down Lucky Ned Pepper, the Parmelees, and Mexican Bob. As they walk back, Chaney strikes LaBoeuf on the head with a large rock, knocking him out. Later, Laboeuf awakens and pulls Rooster and Mattie out of the snake pit before falling off the horse dead.
The history of head injury, loss of consciousness, brief return to consciousness, and death, suggests an epidural hematoma as the most likely cause.

Answer: Human Growth Hormone

Mattie mentions her lawyer, J. Noble Daggett at various times in the movie. When he finally appears, to pay Rooster the remainder of the money owed to him for going after Tom Cheney, as well as a bonus for saving Mattie's life, Rooster is briefly taken aback by Daggett's appearance. He is a small and slight man. Rooster remarks, "Yer shrunk".
Had Daggett's parents provided HGH, he would have grown taller.
Steroids in childhood would not have helped and would have been detrimental overall.
There is no reason to think he was diabetic, thus needing insulin.
Amphetamines might have made little J. Noble more alert and perhaps helped with his studies, but without long term benefits.

Answer: Gunshot

C. C. Wharton does not appear in the movie but in the trial of his brother in Judge Parker's court, Rooster recounts the episode in which he captured him. He had "only winged him, or he wouldn't be here to pay up".
Rooster recounts how he shot the other two, "C. C. and the old man hit the ground dead."

Answer: Dementia

Grandma Turner is lying motionless and apparently asleep in bed at the Monarch Boarding House. Mattie will need to stay with her as the rooms are all taken due to the hanging in Fort Smith. Grandma Turner is used to "doubling up".
Her elderly appearance, lack of communication and apparent bed-ridden condition suggests dementia.
She is too old for premenstrual tension, while hemophilia and gout are primarily male conditions and would not present in that fashion.

Answer: Staph Aureus

At the gun battle at the dugout, LaBoeuf has an injury to his hand. The exact cause of the injury is not shown. It might be gunshot, or perhaps he hurt his hand climbing on the rocks. However it is an open wound since Mattie bandages it.
Gaspargo is about to treat it after Mattie, Rooster, and LaBoeuf get to McAlister, but when Mattie asks Gaspargo if he is going to wash his hands he admits he has never heard of germs.
Staph Aureus is a common bacterium associated with skin infections and LaBoeuf's open wound puts him at risk for this, which probably increases if Gaspargo has dirty hands during treatment.
Gaspargo treats Mattie's snakebite but there is no reason to believe he is not aware of snake venom.
There is no suggestion of angina or cardiac disease in the movie.
Candida is a yeast and while it may cause skin conditions, is an unlikely problem for LaBoeuf's hand wound.

Answer: Gunpowder burn

Though Chaney probably had a lot of sun exposure in his life and thus was at risk for melanoma, Mattie relates that Chaney got a mark "like banished Cain" from a gun misfiring next to his face. LaBoeuf shows her a photo of him while they are at the Monarch boarding house and she identifies him, though without the mark on his face. LaBoeuf relates that Chaney's real name is Theron Chelmsford.

Answer: Dyspepsia

When Judge Parker returns to court, with Rooster still sworn in to testify, he asks the bailiff for some mints for his digestion. He chews on these while Rooster testifies.
Peppermint is an old carminitive used for indigestion. The symptoms of indigestion would not suggest prostate disease. Diverticulitis would produce abdominal discomfort, but not digestive type and peppermint would not help.
Cardiac disease might produce ill defined gastrointestinal symptoms but atrial fibrillation is less likely an explanation than coronary artery disease.

Answer: Dr. Andrew Weil....alternative medicine

After Mattie is captured by Ned and his gang, she sees Mexican Bob and says she saw him shot at the dugout, yet there appear to be no wounds. Bob tells her that his wounds heal themselves, "from inside". Alternative medicine practitioners advocate self healing measures.

Answer: Cerebral Palsy

Horace does not appear in the movie but is mentioned by Rooster to Mattie. As they wait for Lucky Ned and his gang to appear at the dugout, Mattie asks Rooster if he had any children. Rooster tells her he had a son, but his wife took him with her when she left him.
Rooster relates that the son, Horace, was quite "clumsy" and had broken forty cups.
Perhaps he was clumsy, or just an obstreperous child, or perhaps Rooster is being hyperbolic. It is conceivable he had a condition that made it difficult to hold his cup without dropping it, hence Cerebral Palsy.
ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) is not a childhood condition.
Rooster certainly would have mentioned that Horace was blind had that been the case.
Legg-Calve-Perthes is a hip condition and would not have caused Horace to break cups.