[Injuries to sheriff or deputy while making arrest; medical

expenses; limitation.] Whenever any sheriff or deputy sheriff has been or may be hereafter wounded or injured while in pursuit of or attempting to arrest any person accused of any crime in this state, and shall make affidavit fully setting forth the facts of his said wounding or injury, and shall also make affidavit that he is a poor person and that he is unable to pay for proper medical or surgical attention, or that his family is unable to do so for him or furnish support for himself or family, and said affidavit shall be supported by the affidavit of two disinterested freeholders of the county, not more than one of whom shall be from the same precinct, then upon the presenting of said affidavits to the board of county commissioners of the county wherein said sheriff or deputy sheriff was an officer at the time of his said injury or wounding, they may allow from the county treasury a sum of money, which to them shall seem reasonable, to be used for the benefit of said wounded or injured officer for medical or surgical attention or for the removal of said officer to some hospital or for the immediate relief of his family: provided, that no such sum or sums of money shall altogether exceed five hundred dollars [($500)].