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Essay about Crawford Long: Discovery of Anesthesia

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There are many people in this world that have affected the medical field. Some invented places, supplies, and medicine. However, there is a certain man who created a medicine that would prevent pain while in surgery. Crawford Long discovered anesthesia. Anesthesia is insensitivity to pain, especially as artificially induced by the administration of gases or the injection of drugs before surgical operations. Crawford Long was born on November 1, 1815, in Danielsville, Georgia, to James and Elizabeth Long. He had four sibling; two sisters and a brother. In elementary, Crawford attended many local schools until he was fourteen. When he turned fourteen, he became interested in college. At this age, he was enrolled at the College of Georgia’s …show more content…

He watched hypnotic shows and the effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas). As Crawford watched the effects of this gas, he realized that the gas caused the people bump into things and not feel the pain until after it wore off. Nitrous Oxide is a gas that is a colorless gas with a sweet odor and taste. Inhalation leads to disorientation, euphoria, numbness, loss of motor coordination, dizziness, and ultimately a loss of consciousness (Fred, 2010). He also realized how affective anesthesia was when he had performed surgery on a patient who had inhaled a plethora of fumes. Well, eventually there was a patient who needed a tumor removed; which is when Crawford decided to try his anesthesia (Madden, 2012). He applied the anesthesia which took only a few seconds to interact with the body. The patient went to sleep, and when he awoke, he reported to Crawford that he did not feel any pain during the surgery. Crawford continued using anesthesia in his future surgeries, and still today we use it. In conclusion, with Crawford’s discovery, we now have anesthesia for surgery. Anesthesia is insensitivity to pain, especially as artificially induced by the administration of gases or the injection of drugs before surgical operations. Anesthesia is now used when people have to have surgery that requires being put to sleep. There are two ways this can be given. It can be given by inhalation and also by injection into a vein. His discovery allowed

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