WW1 Medicine Flashcards
What were the 5 stages of evacuation?
- stretcher bearer
- regimental aid post
- field ambulance
- casualty clearing station
- base hospitals
When was the battle of the Somme?
July - November 1916
When was the battle of Arras?
April - may 1917
What is the regimental aid post?
- Close to the front line
- stretcher bearer stage
- sent more serious injuries onto the next stage
What is the field ambulance?
- mobile medicine unit of RAMC which set up dressing stations
- a mile back from the front line
- could look after men for a week
What is the casualty clearing station?
- larger and better equipped
- situated in buildings several miles from the front line
- staffed by doctors and nurses
- life threatening injuries
What were the base hospitals?
- situated near the coast
- doctors who specialised their treatments
- patients could stay for a while
- could be sent home
7 injuries and illnesses in the trenches
- Gas attacks
- Head injuries
- Shell shock
- Trench fever
- Trench foot
- Bullets
- High explosive shells and shrapnel
What does the RAMC stand for?
What was it?
- Royal Army Medical Corpse
- provided the majority of the medical care in the war
What does FANY stand for?
What does it do?
- First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
- all female voluntary organisation which deploys rapid response teams to support military crises
Features of the battle of Ypres?
- Germans had high ground which meant British was in the lower waterlogged area
- Second battle of Ypres April to May 1915/ first use of chlorine gas by the Germans
- 245,000 British casualties
- Extreme condition, lots of rain waterlogged 
Features of the battle of the Somme 
- July to November 1916
- 400,000 Allied casualties in total which meant there was a strain on medical service
Features of the battle of Arras
- April 1917
- Chalky to rain which meant they could dig tunnels
- Underground rooms with running water and electricity
- Underground hospital had around 700 beds
- 160,000 casualties
Features of Battle of Cambria
- robertson set up blood bank before battle
- October 1917
- ## 1st major use of tanks (450)
Features of the stretcher bearer
- fetched wounded from trenches and no man’s land
- Carried basic medical supplies like bandages and morphine
- Limited by basic supplies
- Only 16 bearers per 1000 men
- In muddy conditions it took 6 to 8 bearers to carry a stretcher
- Injured had to wait hours or days
Features of casualty clearing station
- Around 10 miles from the front line
- seven doctors and nurses
- Operations especially amputations
- Had operating theatres x-ray machines, wards, toilets and kitchens
- used triage system to divide people e.g. minor critical and hopeless
- Could deal with only 1000 men
What were the two types of gases used in gas attacks?
Phosgene (1915)
Mustard gas 1915
Caused temporary blindness 
Symptoms of trench fever
Itching and flu like symptoms lasting five days
Treatment of trench fever
Electric current sent through the body
Prevention of trench fever
Wash clothes regularly
How many people by 1918 suffered from trench fever?
50%
Prevention of trench foot
Soldiers were recommended to change socks twice a day
Approximately how many people suffered from shellshock in the war?
80,000
However, it is predicted a lot more
What was the Carrol- Dakin method (1917)
Putting sterilised salt solution into wound via tube
Drawbacks of Carrol - Dakin method
Had to be made when needed as only lasted six hours difficult when treating large numbers of soldiers
What was debridement?
Cutaway damaged and infected tissue
What injury was the Thomas splint used on?
Compound fractures
What was the survival rate of compound fractures before the Thomas splint?
20%
What did the Thomas splint do?(1916)
Pulled leg straight to stop bones grinding and reduce bleeding
What was the impact of the Thomas splint?
- Prevented blood loss while patient was being transported to C.C.S. for surgery
- Survival rate increased to 82%
What was the solutions made for storing blood?
- in 1915 sodium citrate added to blood able to be stored for two days
- 1916 citric glucose added to blood could be stored for four weeks
- Blood banks set up by the government in 1917
- Portable machine that could be used nearer the front line was made
Problems with x-ray machines at the beginning of the war
- not enough
- Overheat quickly and had to be left to cool down it wasn’t possible to x-ray a lot of soldiers
How did they improve the use of x-rays?
- More x-ray machines were produced
- Smaller x-ray machines transported around in trucks
When was skin graft developed and what were they?
1915 and they were covering up wounds with skin from another part of the body
Impact of skin grafts
By 1915 11,000 reconstructive operations were completed
