Medical System: Triage Before The Civil War

The most popular out of all the equipment was the amputation saw. Many times, the only way to save a person’s life was through amputation. Surgeons would have to cut off the damaged portion of the body with the amputation saw made out of a steel blade and wooden handle. “Rather than being comfortably anaesthetized, the soldiers had to grit their teeth through the pain of having their limbs amputated.” (Daily Mail)

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)

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.

How were injured soldiers treated during the circus war? How does our medical treatments now compare to how they were treated before? Did the way injured soldiers were treated have to do with the cause of their death? Wounds were treated very differently to how they’re treated now and it always makes people wonder how people still survived and were able to live longer. It all reflects on technology, transportation, antiseptic practices, and surgical techniques. Throughout war and history more soldiers died from diseases than they did from injuries and often the medical treatments they would get for their injuries wouldn’t make them better but worse and it was what caused more deaths.

The medicines and medical techniques used during the Civil War were very primitive for their time. Extremely little was known about germs and the dangers of infections. In Recovery, it is stated that, “Treating wounds and illnesses with medication had become common—opiates, stimulants, sedatives, diuretics, purgatives, and more were widely available and used. The first pills had been made in the early 1800s. The stethoscope and the

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.

John Burford, a Brigadier General, had received a bullet to the knee during the Second Battle of Manassas. Luckily Buford’s bullet wound wasn’t too serious. If the wound had been serious, it would have been treated with amputations and since there were no anesthetics back then, the person getting amputated on would feel all the pain. Surgeries during the Civil War were performed unsanitary. Surgeons would not wash their hands before operating and would wear blood splattered clothing. The instruments used for operating were never disinfected properly. Instead, they would dip their instruments in cold water, often bloody from the prior operation. Buford had died in December 1863 of

One of the first nurses to see battle injuries was Ms. Fannie Beers who described the arrival of the first 200 soldiers at a makeshift hospital “they came with some form of disease whether on foot or stretcher, barefoot or on swollen feet”. (12) The battlefront hospitals were only that of open area sites with conditions anything but sanitary, with blood, human waste and amputated limbs covering the ground. The first battle women encountered was with their selves. Only their strong religious faith steeled them against sickening sights of disease and infection. These nurses learned to rein in their feelings and believed patients redemption hallowed their work.

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.

During the Civil War, they had to have many medicines, operations, and surgeries done to themselves or others in order to survive (Jenny Goellnitz, Paragraph 1). Some of these medicines we still use today. Medical technology and scientific knowledge have changed dramatically since the Civil War, but the basic principles of military health care remain the same. The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died from disease.

Many physicians and caregivers were very hard to find, especially with proper training. In the barracks, the military was contained in a closed space, had poor hygiene, and all of these components led to the spread of disease and infection (Health and Medicine in Revolutionary America, n.d.). As reported by Dosespot, when living the life of a soldier in the American Revolution, you had a higher chance of dying in a hospital than in the battlefield. According to statistics, there was a 75% percent chance that you would survive treatment from a wound or illness if you seek treatment in a hospital. Though, there was a 98% chance that you live through a battle.

At the time, medicine in both countries (truthfully worldwide) was still very primitive. There were surgeons who were part of the military, and medics were very sought after. There was little they could do to help, however. According to the Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, “the great majority of wounds and of sickness should be treated by the regimental surgeon,” (Sherman 393). The treatment given back then to a wound from a gunshot wound was amputation without anesthesia- as it would not be invented yet for about a century- and after surgery, doctors did not wash their hands or instruments, exponentially increasing the likelihood of infection of a wound and lowering the likelihood of survival. The Union had an advantage in this, though not due to superior doctors or medicine. The Union had roughly four and a half times as many citizens as the

The Medical Field in the Civil War is where they stepped up and took the challenge on healing the nation and approach medicine into the Modern Age. What I mean by that is that where Doctors, Nurses, Surgeons, and Physician took care of bullet wounds, diseases, and missing limbs. The diseases

Another way anesthesia improved healthcare was through continued public acknowledgement of its versatility. It also led to new discoveries in the medical field and impacted the rest of America's medical-related future. First off, it was widely used in the Crimean War over in Europe from 1853-1856. Because of anesthesia's success in the Crimean War, American physicians read up on the use of chloroform through pamphlets and documents that detailed how chloroform was used in the Crimean War and how it was used in civilian practices (Devine). As the war raged on, it soon became a common realization, after trial and error, that doctors should use chloroform during surgical operations when needed. By the end of the Civil War, Union records showed

Men were dying left and right in the camps. The conditions and hygiene were poor especially during the beginning of the war. When the war began there were no plans of even treating the sick or the wounded. The first epidemics came of childhood diseases known as chicken pocks, mumps, whooping cough, and especially measles. Operations in the south meant a dangerous new environment. Surgeons had no antibiotics at the time so whiskey, coffee, and quinine were prescribed. During the Civil war these were only some of the few and little medicines that were available.