A Brief Note On John Snow As A Surgeon And A Doctor

Although I’m not a doctor, Dr. Almonds book, Stories of a West Virginia Doctor pulled me in to keep me guessing throughout his many stories to make me feel as if I was the doctor working the case. I would try to guess the diagnoses of the patients, and I came to care for them as well. I aspire to become a doctor one day, so I found this book exceedingly interesting!

The Civil War is known as a central event in American History. The war was fought between the Union States and the Confederate States from 1861-1865. When people reflect on the Civil War, they often think of victory and defeat. They never bother to go behind the scenes. People that aren’t mentioned in most history textbooks are surgeons.

The work of these two men changed the contemporary views on how disease was spread. By solving the cholera mystery, they helped contribute to making the world safe for bigger cities. Over the next few years a lot of changes were made. Both the medical and public health establishments latched onto Snow’s waterborne theory and through one of the greatest feats in engineering history, London started the process of making an entirely new sewer system. This, along with other precautions such as boiling water that was suspected to be contaminated, brought an end to city-wide choleric outbreaks. Besides the improvements in sewage, the improvements of sanitary conditions all around greatly diminished the spread of disease and held a major part in making the modern city possible. Overall, it turned out that something that was once horrendous and deadly for a massive amount of people, eventually turned out to be helpful for the future of mankind. (Johnson)

A reviewer in the London Medical Gazette suggested that Snow find people living side by side with lifestyles similar in all aspects except of their water source. He made this suggestion because this would ensure that the neighbors breathe the same air and resemble each other more in variables other than the water source. This would guarantee that the water is the source, and not other factors that is causing the cholera.

Mr. Gawande starts his literature on washing hands. He introduces two friends a microbiologist and an infectious disease specialist. Both work hard and diligently against the spread of diseases just like Semmelweis who is mentioned in the chapter. Something I learned, that not many realize, is that each year two million people acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Mainly because the clinicians only wash their hands one-third to one-half as many times as they should. Semmelweis, mentioned earlier, concluded in 1847 that doctors themselves were to blame for childbed fever, which was the leading cause of

In the book The Ghost Map, cholera was going into a massive outbreak in London during 1854. The story begins as one of the characters, baby Lewis, Contracts cholera, and when the mother washes diapers and cleans for the baby, she throws the water into the street. This leads to the outbreak. While the Board of Health believed the smell of the city was the cause of the outbreak, there was another citizen who believed otherwise. Henry Whitehead was a doctor who began to specialize in anesthesiology. Meanwhile, John Snow was researching his own theories, and he worked his way through the city to locate where high volumes of people were dying. While he was doing his research he began making a map, and he graphed where people were dying. Each house

World War I was a war of innovation with new artillery and tactics, but also a deadly war in which approximately ten million soldiers died in or injuries sustained from battle. As injuries increased throughout the war, the need for medical assistance was constantly growing. Surgery is considered an art and like art, it evolved and new techniques were developed, making an injury that could kill someone survivable. For instance, in the Civil War most surgeons would immediately amputate and in World War I surgeons began trying much harder to save limbs. Blood transfusion allowed surgeons to reduce patient death from blood loss because of the ample supply of blood from fellow soldiers. Sanitation improvements led to fewer deaths from infection

“How did you become a many-faces man, Mik-api” (Welch 95)? White Man’s Dog’s weighing curiosity on Mik-api’s life prompted an inquiry that would give the audience a better understanding of Mik-api and the experiences of a medicine man. In response to the question, Mik-api proceeded to recount the tale of his adventure in becoming a medicine man. James Welch illustrates the customs of Native Americans and their history in the United States in

John Simon was professionally a physician, but he became famous for him dramatic reforms of the public health system. He was the first medical officer in the UK’s central government, and he influenced public health by improving public vaccination systems. He also was the founder of the water supply cleaner and made sewers more effective.

John Snow’s findings in place, the Great Stink was the last factor that finally motivated the government to deal with their contaminated drinking water. Years later, another outbreak erupted. Farr, Radcliffe, and Whitehead referred to the now deceased physician’s theory of cholera. Farr was convinced that cholera originated in contaminated water, and he found out that the drainage system in the devastated part of the city was not in use yet. The outbreak of cholera on Broad Street and the iconic map thereafter helped to improve sanitation; the reputation of this famous, clean water, and the isolated cases that specifically fetched water from this pump, were a few factors that aided Snow in his conclusion that cholera came from the Broad Street well. Dr. Snow provided the theory, and Whitehead backed it with evidence. When the scientific mainstream came to accept the cholera theory of water, hygiene was significantly bettered in cities. Sanitary water supplies and waste-removal systems became the central infrastructure project of every industrialized city on the planet. These sewer lines and freshwater pipes made the modern city safe for new inventions and developments.

Snow, a man from the modest home of a labourer, uncommon roots for the men in his profession, made exceptional discoveries which were found by using the most novel thinking and common surveyor’s techniques. He was the first to consider the waterborne theory of cholera and looked at the outbreak from a street and a birds-eye view which in the end allowed him to see the patterns of the outbreak. Whitehead was the local curate who had a first-hand look at the lives of those who were affected by this deadly pathogen. It was he who, spurred on by disprove Snow’s claims, found the crucial evidence that in the end solidified Snow’s theory. Farr was a man with a similar background to Snow, who collected much of the raw statistical data used by Snow to develop and then support his theory. Farr’s information also lead Snow to map out patterns of cholera deaths in the St. James region, creating the “Ghost Map”, an instrumental tool in the defense of his theory.

The hygiene movement helped in the avoidance of communicable diseases, diseases for example cholera, tuberculosis and water illnesses in large part by modifying the people surroundings. In the 1850s, John Snow assisted in recognized the importance in data collection and documentation. His actions terminated an outbreak of cholera in a district of London. Using the same methodology Ignaz Semmelweis, applied it to restraint fever of childbirth a major source of maternal mortality. The reason that this was happening was that after physicians worked on the death bodies, usually they did not wash their and delivered babies and contaminating both, the mother and the baby.

There were many key individuals who contributed towards improvements in health including Edwin Chadwick and Aneurin Bevan, and in my opinion, the individual who played the most important role in improving public health would be public health minister Aneurin Bevan.

Almost 100 countries worldwide are still affected by cholera and it’s virtually impossible to completely prevent an outbreak. If left alone, this rapidly infectious disease can cause many fatalities. However, improved methods for surveillance, diagnosis, and treatment, paired with higher standards of sanitation and personal

John Snow’s study of Cholera and where it originated from was one of the first signs of a true study of epidemics, and shows how important it is to focus on not only the disease and the patient, but on how the disease is transmitted, and the properties of the disease. During that time, Cholera, a disease caused by bacteria, was rampant, and killed many people, and the idea of germs was nonexistent. Through observation and research, Snow theorized that Cholera was in the digestive system, and that Cholera came from dirty or “infected” water. To test his theory, he went from door to door, asking questions about who had been infected, and where they had gotten their water. He learned in his first test that those who drank from one specific water