Medicine in World Wars Flashcards
Common diseases
Trench foot - painful swelling of feet due to standing in cold mud and water
Trench fever - caused by lice
shell shock - mental health problem not understood at the time accused of cowardice
dysentery - stomach pains diarrhoea, fever, vomiting, death from dehydration, caused by infected foods
Role of Women in WW1 (Volunteers)
most women who helped in the war were volunteers who were untrained
Women’s army auxiliary corps. set up 1917. help drive ambulances and other jobs.
Voluntary Aid Detachment: drive ambulances, acted as nurses in RAMC hospitals, eg cleaning floors changing bed linens, cleaning our bedpans.
Role of Women WW1 (Doctors)
Not wanted to volunteer on the western front. At the beginning of the war the war office thought there were enough male doctors and refused to employ women doctors in war zones. various agencies were more welcome to including women in the effort
Dr Louisa Garrett and Dr Flora Murray founded Women’s Hospital Corps in Paris.
War office wanted women to fill in the gaps within Britain by male doctors going to the front.
those who did get to go to the front were often treated different to male doctors
Improvement in surgery WW1
Gas gangrene was solved with surgery technique of Debridement cutting out infected gangrene from the body
Thomas Splint helped fix broken bones in place
Brain Surgery developments using magnet to remove metal shrapnel from the brain.
Plastic Surgery. skin grafts and pedicle tube used to make more real looking skin to cover a wound. restored soldiers’ confidence and helped them find jobs after war
Blood Transfusion WW1
1915 Richard Lewisohn discovered sodium citrate stops blood clotting
1915 Richard Weil discovers refrigerated blood keeps for longer
1915 Lawrence Bruce Robertson pioneers indirect transfusion transfusion before surgery
1916 glucose citrate can be used to make blood keep for up to 4 weeks
1917 Blood depots of type O blood created before Battle of Cambrai
Role of Women in Medicine WW2 (Doctors)
Women were normally GPs or worked in Women and children’s hospitals
number of female medical students 2000 to 2900 by end of war.
less impact than WW1because fewer male doctors called to serve the army
Women doctors worked within Emergency Medical Services in small hospitals.
Role of Women in Medicine WW2 (nurses)
FANY First Aid Nursing Yeomanry overseas
QAIMNS Queen Alexandria Imperial Military Nursing Service. Trained as nurses and had passed military physical tests
Improvements in surgery WW2
penicillin could be used in surgery when was mass produced.
improvements in Plastic Surgery Archibald McIndoe’s saline bath takes over from possibly harmful chemicals
Neurosurgery improvements
Dwight Harken discovers how to remove shrapnel from the heart
Blood transfusion was not a problem. blood plasma was a substitute for whole blood and dried plasma package was developed for even easier transfer of blood transfusion materials.
PTSD was better understood with 18 psychiatric hospitals
