It seems from the information posted here, that Fred Noonan suffered one or more severe injuries during the landing. From the recorded radio transmissions, it sounds that he was in shock. This could occur from blood loss through scalp or other lacerations or long-bone fractures. he may have also sustained a skull fracture, subdural hematoma or traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. he may also have been confused and panicking from hypoxia perhaps secondary to a pneumothorax (or collapsed lung). It seems to me, that he may not have been physically able to leave the aircraft on his own, and Amelia Earhart may have not been physically able to get him out of the plane and to the shore. I suspect then, that he died within the cockpit shortly after landing. It is possible that Amelia established a campsite at the opposite end of the island so as to stay as far away from the plane as possible. Consider the psychological trauma of having her friend and navigator dead in the cockpit. I think most people would avoid the aircraft after something like that. Perhaps she ventured back sparingly, and at some psychological cost, to retrieve as many useful items as she could. Also, i don't know much about sextants but I assume they have a lens in them. Could that lens be used as a magnifying glass to start fires?
Remember the whole idea that Noonan was injured comes from only one reported reception by Betty in Florida, and there is no other confirmation of that report. So your careful medical diagnosis rests on some pretty shaky ground.
This is from the Tighar analysis of radio reports:
------------------------------------------------
142 H - -
Identifier 52130KK
Z Time/Date 2130 to 2315 July 5 (Date uncertain; believed to be July 5 based on signal
propagation and other factors)
Local Time/Date 1630 to 1815 EST July 5
Gardner Time/Date 1030 to 1215 July 5
Agency/Person Betty Klenck
Location St. Petersburg, Florida
Freq (kHz) 24840 (4th harmonic of Earhart’s day frequency – 6210 kHz).
Content See sources below.
Sources Research paper Betty’s Notebook, on TIGHAR website; research paper Harmony
and Power (revised), on TIGHAR website; Finding Amelia, p. 172.
Probability Varied from 0.0013 to 0.00000067 during the period
Qual Factors Betty was extensively interviewed by TIGHAR, and key elements of her notebook
relating to occult information – facts Betty could not have known from sources other than what
she heard on the radio – have been validated. Details are available on the TIGHAR website.
Credibility Credible
------------------------------------------------------
Note, even if the report were true, it was not received until July 5,1937, three days after the possible landing on Gardner. There is no reason to be so certain that Noonan was injured in the landing since the plane would have had to have ended up standing up on its legs in order to operate the radio so no, or little, damage to the plane and its occupants. Plus he could have fallen wading on the reef three days after the landing, falling and hitting his head, so no reason to think he couldn't go ashore at the beginning.
And look at the probability of this propagation, assigned to this reception by TIGHAR, 0.0013 to 0.00000067, somewhere between 1 chance in 769 to one chance in 1,492,537 and this only after utilizing the Rube Goldberg method of grasping at harmonics so there is reason to doubt that Betty even heard Earhart. There are other reasons that call Betty's reception report into doubt.
I have attached Brandenberg's original analysis of the probability of Betty hearing Earhart. This shows only a one chance in 878 and that
only existed for the first half hour. In the next hour the probability of Betty actually hearing Earhart dropped off to only 1 chance in 344,827! For the last 15 minute period the probability increased to 1 chance in 50,000. The current listing for the Betty reception doesn't break it down into these three periods but it makes sense that the periods mentioned in the first Brandenberg table also hold true for the current listing so after only the first half hour that the chance of Betty continuing to hear Earhart dropped off to the new estimate contained in the listing of one chance in one-million-four-hundred-ninty-two- thousand-five-hundred and thirty seven (1,492,537) yet the claim is that Betty heard Earhart for an hour and 45 minutes. So do you really believe that she heard that Noonan was injured?
gl