Joseph Lister's Contributions to Medical Science Essay

(Science Museum) During the Gilded Age, surgeons were just beginning to clean their instruments with a solution called, “carbolic acid.”(How Antiseptic Surgery) This solution helped surgery become less dangerous due to infections. Amputations were the most common surgery in that time.

This explains Longstreet passing the hospital tents and John Bell Hood was one of the patients there trying to get treated. How they would treat this situation is to amputate his arm with a saw that was used by other patients, but they gave him a choice. It was to either keep his arm and let it be useless and just hanging, or amputate his arm. He chose to keep his arm, but you could imagine the pain he might of felt and all the blood and inside of his arm

Sawbones is the slang term for doctors of the Civil War. How an esteemed figure like as doctor could be associated with such a name might come as a surprise to those unaware of the gruesome medical tactics used on both sides of the war. A bonesaw, which is exactly what it sounds like, was a tool commonly used by doctors of the war to amputate limbs beyond repair caused by various types of weaponry, primarily gunshots. However barbaric they may seem, the medical treatments and procedures used on wounded soldiers were actually the pinnacle of medicine at the time and it is difficult yet crucial to understand that some events must transpire for the next advancement to occur, i.e. the September 11th attacks that lead to the nationwide increase of airport security that has surely saved lives and improved the safety of millions of people. Likewise, it is important to understand what caused the widespread disease and infection throughout the war, what doctors at the time did in response to the killer that was sickness, and how the bloodbath that was the civil war, pushed medicine to the next level. Although many lives were lost in the Civil War, nearly half of them caused by sickness, soldiers did not die in vain as the information acquired from their suffering lead to the modernization of medicine.

As for John Buford, during the Battle of Gettysburg, he received a bullet to his kneecap. Since it wasn’t that serious, there was no need for an amputation. But if it was, they would have no other choice but amputate his leg. This would have been really painful because there were no anesthetics John Buford would have been wide awake, feeling all the pain of a saw cutting through his skin and

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

Today, our medical field has never failed to advance in treating wounds painlessly, you’d be taken aback by how wounds were treated during the Civil War. No one can lie that the war all started due to slavery. The South, the confederates, and the North, the union, were both against one another. The confederate states, the south, Wanted to continue having slavery. While the North, they wanted equal rights for everyone. This controversy started the Civil War. The Union had more soldiers and more firearms, compared to the South that only had way less supplies. With the battle between the Union and the Confederates, there is no doubt about the many injuries that occurred.

Amputations were the most common surgery and was the easiest and fastest in the Civil War. This surgery was used to prevent deadly complications. Doctors were never really prepared for this type of surgery. “About 30,000 soldiers had to have an amputation during the war.”(Civil War Medicine) This surgery was usually used if the soldier got shot in a specific limb or if someone had a fatal disease, then they would cut off the limb that was the most infected. During this time the Civil War was a plus, because this led to making prosthetic limbs. Between 1845 and 1873 the amount of prosthetic limbs were being prescribed to tons of people. Wood and steel were the main material for prosthetic limbs.

Amputations were intended to prevent gangrene, which is a deadly complication resulting from obstructed circulation or bacterial infection ("History of Medicine," 2011). When legs were amputated, patents waited for artificial limb designs to be accommodated for them. Around 150 patents were issued for artificial limbs between 1861 and 1873, the industry then expanded to benefit the veteran population ("History of Medicine," 2011). It costed veterans $75 to buy an artificial leg and $50 for an arm, the Confederacy then provided financial assistance in 1864 for purchases ("History of Medicine," 2011). Gunshot and explosive wounds carried many types of injuries with them like comminuted fractures, compound fractures, and wounds of joints ("The Call," n.d.). Comminuted fractures are where the bone is broken, splintered, or crushed into different pieces, which demands amputation ("The Call," n.d.). While compound fractures on the other hand are when bone comes through the skin; May require amputation if in a large limb like a leg, thigh, arm, or forearm ("The Call," n.d.). Injuries that almost always needed amputations were wounds to the joints such as the knee joint, elbow joint, shoulder joint, wrist, ankle, and hip joint. Most of all of these injuries could have been treated with better care with the medical procedures we have

Surgery back then was very dangerous because doctors didn't have the right equipment that they have today. Surgery was very brutal, very painful but it was quick. (Amputation 1860) Most surgeries would only last 10 min and surgery was the most common thing. But if surgery was done close to the hip it was most likely fatal. (Amputation today) is avoid because of our advanced and better medicines. If Amputation is takes place there are better medicine for you. Sanitation in 1860 people didn't really know about germs so when doctors used tools for surgery or for some other reason they wouldn't clean the tools and the tools would be infection with many germs. Also they didn't have a lot of medicine nor did they put on gloves with doing surgery. Today they have better tools and are more effective.

Dr. Ward was interviewed the year of 1819; he proved many children in the factories have been through some instances where they lost a finger or two while working on machines Dr.Ward firmly said, “When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very often admitted to the infirmary, though the children’s hands and arms having being

Unfortunately, this practice caused more problems for the patients, such as death. During the Civil War, anesthesia, a drug used to numb the body was introduced to make procedures manageable for the patient and the doctor. Due to the

The practice of medicine has been shaped through the years by advances in the area of diagnostic procedures. Many of these advances were made possible by scientific breakthroughs made before the 20th century. Modern medicine arguably emerged. Both normal and abnormal functions (physiology and pathology) were increasingly understood within smaller units, first the tissues and then the cells. Microscopy also played a key role in the development of bacteriology. Physicians started to use stethoscope as an aid in diagnosing certain diseases and conditions. New ways of diagnosing disease were developed, and surgery emerged as an important branch of medicine. Above all, a combination of science and technology underpinned medical knowledge and

25). Unfortunately, the article regarding Mr. Benson’s case did not give detail on whether or not proper documentation had occurred. However, one can assume documentation was not done properly as the wrong leg had been amputated. If proper documentation had been completed in Mr. Benson’s case, it is possible someone besides the surgeon may have caught the wrong leg was about to be amputated. An example of proper documentation would be the consenting of the patient for surgery. Mr. Benson had to have been consented for surgery, which means a doctor or a nurse practioner would discussed with the patient which leg was to be amputated, signs and symptoms of complications and what to expect after surgery. If there was any question once the patient was in the operating room, which leg to amputate, anyone could have looked in the patient’s chart to see what Mr. Benson had been consented for. Documentation of the time out could have also prevented Mr. Benson from having the wrong leg amputated. The reason being is, everyone involved in the case would have stopped and made sure the right patient was in the operating room and the right surgery was to be performed so it could be documented this act was completed. Not only proper documentation could have prevented this horrible act but also the help of the nurses could have prevented a mistake like this from happening.

Lister’s first started to realise where the cause of infection came from was when he was comparing different patient’s compound fractures and normal fractures. Most simple fractures did not have a wound which penetrated the skin so it not has contact with the outside air. Patients which had these kind of fractures bones where set and placed in a cast and they had a very high recovery rate. A compound fracture is when the bone penetrates through the skin when a fracture occurs and so comes into contact with the air. Usually over 50% of these patients died in the recovery stage. Lister then went on to work out that somehow the infections that are causing people to die must be entering wounds from the

Beaver (2008) surgical patients commonly developed postoperative fever followed by purulent drainage from their incision, sepsis and often death. The introduction of the principles of antisepsis by Lister and acceptance of Pasteur's germ theory has led to decrease infection rates. The rationale behind it is the fact that this theory increasingly change the surgery from activity associated with infection and death