Surgical Improvements from World War One Essay

This allows the soldiers to apply pressure without having someone else to assist them. The tourniquets could only be used on wounds that occur on the arms or legs. Fibrin bandages are now used to decrease the loss of blood and the number of deaths. The treatment for a damaged limb at times, for some soldiers, was to amputate at an earlier time because it could later result in a good outcome. Anesthesia was created to prevent a lot of people from suffering pain during the operation. Military and civilian anesthesiology has connections in the treatment of trauma for critical care medicine. A vaccine was created to prevent Smallpox, it helps your body develop an immunity towards

The medical practices used during the civil war were unsanitary and rushed. Surgeons re-used tools without cleaning, and lack of soap meant that they did not wash their hands frequently. Surgeons moved from patient to patient with bloodstained hands and clothes, and no thought that they might be harming their patient. In Document B, a surgeon is described as moving from patient to patient ; “As fast as possible he attended to their hurts, and in a short time had been compelled to perform a number of capital operations.” (Doc B). The many wounded men coming in from the battlefield made it difficult for surgeons to take their time, so they moved at

During any war, medical advancements are commonly made in response to the atrocities that take place during these bloody and gruesome times. World War II is no exception. During World War II, medical advances simply had to be made to keep soldiers alive. With all the victims of bullet wounds and diseases spreading around, treatments had to be invented or advanced. I chose this topic because science and medicine is very fascinating to me and I want to become a doctor when I grow up. During the war, penicillin, sulfanilamide, atabrine, plasma, and morphine were used in abundance and saved a countless number of lives.

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.

In the article, “Unprecedented injuries from First World War spawned medical advances still used today", the first main breakthrough medically was blood transfusions. Blood transfusion was the process of transferring the blood of a person into the veins of another. However, this was a risky practice because it was difficult to get a compatible combatant to perform the procedure. Although it did help reduce the number of deaths in many wars to follow. The benefits of the medical developments that occurred during the war continued to save hundreds of lives each day.

This leads us to believe that surgeons were heroes. Often times, they had to risk their own lives by just being in the middle of a war zone to help prevent the death of

The Civil War was fought with much carnage, and was one of America’s most ‘uncivilized’, wars with a soldier’s chance of survival about twenty-five per cent. While many were killed by other soldiers, usually through bullets, a large portion died as a result of disease such as: dysentery, mumps, pneumonia, typhoid fever, measles, and tuberculosis, diseases that are curable today. These diseases were spread through the horribly sanitized camps found on both sides of the war: Confederate and Union. And while many died from disease, some died from other soldiers’ bullets; these deaths may have been prevented if the technology, or overall techniques used by surgeons, during this time period were more up-to-date, as amputations were the main procedure

During World War II, the need for medicine, and more doctors increased with the increase of injuries and illnesses. Injuries, in previous wars, were more problematic, as the wound would be infected easier. More illnesses were exposed to people creating a need for more medications to treat the sickness. As this need increased, sulfanilamide, penicillin, atabrine, plasma, and morphine, were found and used. As the number of available nursed changed, the standards of working nurses on the field had to be changed to accommodate to the change of work needed.

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.

Whenever there was a casualty on the battlefield, the injured soldier was removed using a combination of stretchers, horses, carts, and people. If the casualty wasn’t very serious or life-threatening, the wounded soldier would be treated right there, by nurses and doctors. However, if the injury was very serious or life-threatening, that badly injured soldier would be put on an ambulance and be transported the the most nearby

Medical care was as scarce as clean water. Basic medical care was rudimentary. Describing the situations as “incredibly unhygienic” would be an understatement. War fatalities were the immediate effects of the Great War and the incredible spread of a disease was a later one. As a matter of fact, more people died from the Great Influenza Pandemic than from World War One (Tauenberger1).

World war one created millions of casualties and injuries ranging from physical wounds to emotional trauma. New weapons such as the menacing and evil tear gas and rapid firing machine guns caused unprecedented damage to our soldiers. In order to help deal with this problem, doctors had to come up with new and improved methods of technology and treatment.

During my tour I viewed three rooms and the herb garden of the small hospital. One room specifically called the “mourning room” is where soldiers just rested until there death. Another room housed six to eight beds were soldiers rested while they recovered from there surgery. At this time period germ theory or anesthesia had not been developed yet so survival after surgery was risky. Most hospitals had a 30% – 40% survival rate but the Spanish military hospital had a 60% - 70% survival rate based on their Spanish tactics. For example when dressing the wound the Spanish used a lynch mixture made out of cotton and corn flour. This form of wound dressing was more efficient and cleaner than other wound dressings during this period. Also the Spanish changed

World War Two, a harsh period of time in the 1930s-1940s, filled with controversial arguments, political battles, fights to the death, but most importantly, medical advancements. Did you know that without the research and discoveries made during World War Two, our medical programs would probably be lacking the information we have today? It’s very true, and in my opinion, the war strengthened our medical abilities, and it really put our world to the test. New medicine had been discovered, while old medicine had been improved; horrible medical experiments performed by the Nazis occurred during this time; but most importantly, World War Two has affected our medical programs that we have presently. These

The hospital was on top of a large waste container, which contaminated the water and the building itself. Soldiers lay in their own body fluids on stretchers throughout the hallways as pests ran about. Supplies dwindled due to the increase in patients, even water was being rationed.