Contribution of Dr. Norman Bethune

For decades, America has fought in many different wars with the need of health assistance for their soldiers. The American Red Cross is a worldwide organization that helped during the times of war but also provided a path for scientific advancements. Through the American Red Cross and other organizations of this time, they opened up the doors for women to take the chance to advance in the medical field by participating in scientific experiments and being at the aide of wounded soldiers. During this time of scrutiny, the Great War was a hidden opportunity for the encroachment of medical research with the contribution to the expansion of nursing.

Sadly, like many other heroes, Polly Cooper is not widely known for her bravery, and her courage. Polly Cooper was once a member of a Native American tribe called the Oneida. The Oneidas were a relief mission organized by Chief Shenandoah. This is a tribe that helped us win the American Revolution.

Instead, nurses were to assist with the soldiers’ diet and make sure what they ate was carefully regulated. They cared for physical needs like distribution of linen and clothes. They also helped with emotional and spiritual care by comforting them and writing letters to their family for them.

The Regimental Medical Officer and his assistants cleaned the wounds applied dressings, and gave injections. The injured man was then taken to the Advanced Dressing Station. Wounds were again treated and sometimes emergency amputations took place. The wounded soldier was now moved to the Casualty Clearing Station where surgery if needed was carried out.

Even though there was not any sanitation the chance of survival for stretched then pervious wars. Doctors had medical kits, which included different tool for cutting such as knives, scalpels, bone saws, chain saw, suture and bandages. Thermometers were rarely used. Doctors did have some painkillers, but they were not always given to all soldiers. The most effective were morphine and opium. What happened after the surgery? Soldiers were transported to a hospital by ambulance. Soldiers were normally in horrible pain making the trip almost unbearable to deal with. The greatest risks for soldiers were now infection.

The lack of space required many places to be converted into temporary triage locations. Triage is a quick way to streamline examination and get serious cases handled first. Another issue was moving bedridden patients after their surgeries because of the narrow hatchways and doorways. The amount of patients required another ship to be dispatched to accommodate the patients. The lack of supplies and the variations of injuries caused continuous problems for surgeons, especially those who were becoming extremely fatigued. A common issue was that the extent of injuries could not have been determined completely until the patient was on the operating table. For example patients who were referred to as D and B in the report took the constant attention and the former succumbed to his injuries after two hours. the latter survived after given saline, but still needed constant attention. Another example is an unnamed patient who was not examined for over forty hours, had developed large maggots in his wounds. Unlike modern operating rooms, supplies could not be set up according to procedure. Because of the time required to properly sanitize blankets, many soldiers were without one. (Darby)

The Civil War had a tremendous death toll. In fact, it had more deaths than any of the previous wars combined. At the time, it was thought that the soldiers in battle died from the wounds or amputations they received. The true cause of death came from disease. These harsh conditions were contributed by unqualified doctors and non-sterile equipment. During the Civil War, the true issue was not only the wounds received in battle but the infectious diseases that ultimately led to the soldier’s death. When this was discovered, doctors knew some action needed to take place. Hospitals and sanitation standards were improved. The Civil War contributed to an evolution of medicine and how to combat victims plagued with disease.

During the Civil War, medicine was an important aspect for every soldier due to the fact that many soldiers had to fight and ended up with injuries also there were many types of illnesses. In this essay, I will focus on the advance of medicine during the Civil War. Also how the soldiers and civilians were treated as well as how sanitize their location was, are questions I will try to answer. Also, I will like to include some of most known causes of deaths during the Civil War and the types of diseases that soldiers would come in contact with. Include who was in charge of the hospitals during the war. I will also include information from letters and documents that the nurse and doctors wrote while the Civil War was going one and what kind of establishments were created and the kind of equipment they used in the hospital. Since the period of the Civil War was and is consider to be the start and growth of the medical industry it is important for me to find out why.

People like Clara Barton and William A. Hammond played a strong part in the medical field during the Civil War. Clara Barton, a humanitarian and founder of the American Red Cross, cared for wounded and delivered a lot of medical supplies and administered relief at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. Every effort was made to prevent death by human error and ignorance through the development of organized and more advanced practices. William A. Hammond was a surgeon general and he standardized, organized and designed new hospital layouts and inspection systems. William also wrote the book on hygiene for the army (Dixon np).

There was limited supply of medical equipment as a result they were using saws, scalpels, and knives to operate surgery in the field. It was long ago before the introduction of sterility of medical instrument and so the instrument became bridge of contamination of disease between soldiers. “Recalled on surgeon; ‘we operated in old blood-stained coats with infected hand” (Oates, 362). It was a head of discovery of antibiotic, wounds and scars could easily develop to infection and therefore limited their survival. Doctors and nurses were limited in number as well their distribution center around the battle. Soldiers were wounded so badly and doctors knew nothing except to devise amputations. They did all they can to alleviate the pain of the wounds by amputation but they were too surpassed by patients. There were no ambulances to carry victims to the medical centers nor had the doctors to see every patient with special

When Walt Whitman wrote that he believed the "real war" would never get into the books, this is the side he was talking about (Belferman 1996). Yet, it is important that we remember and recall the medical side of the conflict too, as horrible and terrifying as it was (Adams 1952). Long before doctors and people knew anything about bacteria and what caused disease was the time of Civil War medicine. Doctors during the Civil War (always referred to as "surgeons") were incredibly unprepared. Most surgeons had as little as two years of medical school because very few pursued further education. At that time, Harvard Medical School did not even own a single stethoscope or microscope until well after the

these first medical centers from the civil war. As I mentioned before the civil war paved

The medical staff were big heroes in the war. Amputation was the most common type of surgery during the civil war. The surgeons were known as “butchers.” Over the course of the war, the federal army did about 30,000 amputations. However if soldiers were shot in the head, chest, or stomach, the surgeons didn't even bother with them because it was very likely they would die.

The nineteenth century held one of the most medically appalling wars, as well as one of the most medically innovative wars. The Civil war is considered a terrible time period for medical equipment as well as surgeons. Many soldiers who had been fighting in the Civil War were killed by sicknesses including diarrhea and pneumonia. Surgeons, who had minimum medical experience, were taking care of the wounded soldiers at the time. The idea of sanitizing and sterilizing equipment that was used on a patient beforehand was not known by the inexperienced surgeons. Only a few years later came the Spanish-American war, which showed a vast improvement in the medical field. During the Spanish-American War many important inventions were created. These include the invention of the x-ray, the discovery of the germ theory, and the discovery of the antiseptic method. Both of these discoveries made it much easier for Surgeons to operate on the wounded soldiers. Another beneficial factor that made the Spanish-American War more medically advanced then the civil war was the service of female nurses. The Nurses provided a lot of help for the surgeons at times when there was a lot of work, and assistance was needed. It is clear that the medicinal techniques used during the Civil War were much less advanced than those used during the Spanish American War.

They were moved by a combination of people , which were later collected by stretcher bearers and were brought far enough beyond the lines of battle. They were then transported by horse or cart, and sometimes by motorized ambulance, when available.[2] These men would be moved until they reached a location where they could receive treatment for their injury. Just like today, there were hospitals available, but back then, they were mostly set up in abandoned buildings or any available unoccupied buildings. However, for more serious injuries requiring emergency care, Casualty Clearing Stations were set up in tents. Here surgeries were often performed. In the early 20th century, medical utensils were limited, resulting in the use of guilotines for the amputation of limbs.[3] Today not every injury is an emergency, thus the emergency room. But back then almost every case was an emergency. While now we have a very structured emergency procedure, requiring triages, during the early 20th century, triages were