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Medical Inventions During The Civil War

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The American Civil War was a gruesome war. Brother against brother fighting with one another. Over five hundred men lost their lives fighting in one of the nations biggest, bloodiest battles. Obviously, the leading factor in deaths during the Civil War was wounded soldiers. Limbs were being shattered and wounds were becoming infected and spreading through out the body. Even though the Civil War was a gruesome battle, many lifesaving procedures were born. Because of the high medical need during the American Civil War, necessary advances such as medical inventions, lifesaving procedures; and reconstructive surgery established the foundation for our current medical methods Innovations of the Civil War included things such as medical inventions …show more content…

Ambulances were further developed from the base model which already existed. The ambulance’s main purpose was to speedily take injured soldiers from the battlefield to the medicine and doctors in order to receive appropriate care. Jonathan Lettermen created the ambulance that was used for the Civil War; this ambulance could carry three injured people at a time along with all the supplies necessary. This ambulance was not the ideal ambulance, but worked for the occasion. The ride was extremely bumpy and unstable, but they accomplished their job of taking people from the battlefield to the hospital area. Incredibly, during the Civil War there was multiple “trains” of ambulances, each train consisted of forty ambulances, and there was always forty ambulances on call at a time (Frederick). They were stocked with supplies and stretchers for those unable to get in unaccompanied. The Ambulances were exceptionally helpful during the Civil War, the battle of Antietam was considered the bloodiest day of the Civil War. There were over twenty three thousand casualties during the Antietam War, and in twenty four hours the ambulance corps had all the dead men off the field. At the end of the war, the ambulance was widely recognized as a large lifesaver (Oshinsky …show more content…

Amputations were nothing new, but became increasingly popular during the Civil War. Before the Civil War people would receive infections in their injured limbs causing death. The book Eyewitnesses to the Civil War stated, “The grisly procedure of amputation became emblematic of the Civil War medicine because it was often the only option for saving a wounded soldiers life.” (344) Daniel Sickles was one of the first people during the Civil War to receive and amputation. His right leg was shattered by a bomb, and he was rushed to the doctors. From the time the bomb hit him to the time his leg was amputated was a total of one hour! Amputations became popular during the Civil War because of the large amount of injured limbs. After preforming so many amputations, Civil War surgeons were able to complete an amputation in just fifteen minutes,(Eyewitness to the Civil War 342) and luckily, patients were now given chloroform pain killer through the inhaler. In his book Gangrene and Glory Frank Freemon stated: “Surgery was quick, bloody, and brutal… Taking the knife in his [Surgeon] bloody hands he called out ‘Next’. Another solider was lifted and placed, not too gently on the operating table” (Freemon 109) Amputations were life savers, because without amputations a wounded limb would become infected and spread throughout the body causing infection and leading to

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