World War 2 Anesthetics

During this war, around 21,000 British soldiers died - however, only 2,755 were killed in action, and 2,000 because of battlefield injuries. Over 16,000 British soldiers died due to diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. During this war a lot of hospital patients had to lie on the floor – as there weren’t enough beds. Also, soldiers who had infected limbs had to have them amputated with a saw – and a lot of the time these limbs were given to the military dogs as food. Two significant people to this war were Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Florence Nightingale became a nurse in 1853 - only a year before the Crimean war had begun. After a statement that there weren't enough medical facilities for the war, the war minister of the time - Sidney Herbert - asked Florence to help improve the medical work in the military hospitals. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nightingale_florence.shtml BBC, History, Florence Nightingale) She was the first person to focus on cleanliness and hygiene in hospitals, and also invented the pie chart. After the war, she was able to

The logic and principles of medieval medicine shaped those of Modern medicine. Never was there a more efficient method perfected, so much that it remained through history through so many hundreds of years. Today’s concepts of diagnosis, relationships with the church, anatomy, surgery, hospitals and training, and public health were established in the Middle Ages.

World War I was a war of innovation with new artillery and tactics, but also a deadly war in which approximately ten million soldiers died in or injuries sustained from battle. As injuries increased throughout the war, the need for medical assistance was constantly growing. Surgery is considered an art and like art, it evolved and new techniques were developed, making an injury that could kill someone survivable. For instance, in the Civil War most surgeons would immediately amputate and in World War I surgeons began trying much harder to save limbs. Blood transfusion allowed surgeons to reduce patient death from blood loss because of the ample supply of blood from fellow soldiers. Sanitation improvements led to fewer deaths from infection

Medicine has always been improving throughout the years, but the 1940s were one of the most critical times of how medicine is still practiced today. There were a lot of medical advancements in the 1940s. New antibiotics were discovered, new medical practices helped in the war effort, tests and organizations set up to help find problems in health or health care.

Disease was the number one cause of death during the war. Lack of proper medical knowledge also lead to many deaths. Finally, surgery was so risky and dangerous it too lead to much loss of life.

If there’s war then there’s soldiers who are going to get wounded. Medicine as a whole wasn’t too good during that time and that made people think of

World War 1 was a moment in American history that will forever leave its mark. There were positive and negative factors that came as a result of this brutal bloodshed. There were new types of technology formed that proved useful to our military, new tools, and leaps in medical advances that that helped push the medical fields to its limits and a greater acceptance of women. Despite the bloodshed of world war 1, it was the impetus of the medical advances that help shape the world we live in today.

George Wunderlich once stated, “The American Civil War often gets credit for ending slavery and reshaping the federal government in this country. But the war between the states has another, often overlooked legacy: It may have started a new era in modern medicine” (“Civil War Medicine Quotes”). Contamination of medical equipment, poor sanitation methods, and lack of efficient medical procedures all led to the spread of disease, which resulted in death. However, modern medicine has significantly improved from the Civil War, due to its horrendous medical practices. The Civil War had countless impacts on the nation, but its most significant impacts were the advances in medical equipment, procedures and sanitation.

In comparison to modern medicine, the techniques used during the Civil War are vastly different than medical measures that are implemented in a medical setting today. Surgeons during the Civil War used sulfuric ether and chloroform as anesthesia. Sulfuric ether was discovered in Europe in the 1830s, and was first used as a anesthetic by William Morton in 1846 (Reimer). Anesthesia was only used in 95% of Civil War surgeries (Reimer). Sulfuric ether and chloroform were administrated by placing the chloroform or sulfuric ether on a sponge at the top of a cone and putting the open end over the nose and mouth (Reimer). This method wasted a lot of the liquid as it evaporated (Reimer). Due to the loss of solution, surgeons used just enough to make

The American Civil War was a horrible time of pain and suffering, especially to those who fought in the war. The Civil War caused hundreds and thousands of deaths, yet many of these were not the result of battle wounds. About two thirds of deaths from the Civil War were attributed to disease. Of course, even though the majority of soldiers that did not die during the war left without limbs, and left with trauma and disabilities, the results could have been much worse without the medical advancements we gained during the war. Technical advances in hygiene, surgery, and medical efficiency all became substantial outcomes that furthered medical practices and helped shape medicine in the modern age.

One good thing that resulted from the Civil War was the rise of knowledge and use of modern anesthesia. This anesthesia came in two forms, chloroform and ether. Those patients that anesthesia was used on had a higher survival rate than those where it was not available. Before the war, alcoholic drinks, opioids and bite blocks were used to keep a patient controlled during surgery. These options did not completely eliminate pain causing stress and trauma. At the time of the Civil War, it was considered cowardly to undergo surgery using anesthetic. Anesthesia was usually used for women and children. Use of anesthesia did not go without risk. Surgeons had to practice to figure out adequate dosages which took a period of trial and error sometimes resulting in overdose and death. Although uncivilized at times, medical care during the Civil War helped bring on a new age of modern medicine.

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

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

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

 Secondly, during the war which lasted 4 years, 3 weeks and 6 days many men died but these deaths weren’t only caused by fighting on the battlefield. During the war, “2% of the U.S. population died. This is equivalent to 6 million men today. While rifles were the deadliest weapons during the war, disease killed more men. Camps became breeding grounds for measles, chickenpox, and