At the outbreak of World War I, the United States was woefully unprepared to deal with the volume of severely injured men returning home. With no established Medical Corps and little knowledge regarding basic hygiene and disease prevention, it is estimated that more men died from diseases such as influenza than from enemy bullet wounds. World War I led the United States and other countries involved to step up their standard of medicine to better meet the needs of their countrymen.
X-Ray Technology
The start of a new war came with many terrifying improvements in the weaponry on both sides of the fight. One of the most common battefield injuries experienced by soldiers in World War I was shrapnel injuries caused by grenades and other types of explosive weapons. With so many men dying from their doctor's inability to locate all of the dirty, harmful metal in their bodies, it was decided something had to be done. Though x-ray technology had been developed and was a known technique for looking inside the human body, up to this point it had never been a readily availible form of diagnosis for doctors to use on soldiers in combat. This stigma was eliminated when Marie Curie, a world-renowed scientist and researcher, traveled along the front lines of the war zones in Europe and installed x-ray machines for the doctors to use during their surgeries in order to better locate the fragments of metal riddling the bodies of the men. Despite the fact that the practice of using x-ray was still experimental, everyone seemed to be in agreement that there was no better place to test the idea. Because it had the potential to save lives, the risk was worth the reward.
The start of a new war came with many terrifying improvements in the weaponry on both sides of the fight. One of the most common battefield injuries experienced by soldiers in World War I was shrapnel injuries caused by grenades and other types of explosive weapons. With so many men dying from their doctor's inability to locate all of the dirty, harmful metal in their bodies, it was decided something had to be done. Though x-ray technology had been developed and was a known technique for looking inside the human body, up to this point it had never been a readily availible form of diagnosis for doctors to use on soldiers in combat. This stigma was eliminated when Marie Curie, a world-renowed scientist and researcher, traveled along the front lines of the war zones in Europe and installed x-ray machines for the doctors to use during their surgeries in order to better locate the fragments of metal riddling the bodies of the men. Despite the fact that the practice of using x-ray was still experimental, everyone seemed to be in agreement that there was no better place to test the idea. Because it had the potential to save lives, the risk was worth the reward.
Artificial Limbs
As aforementioned, the development of more dangerous weapons presented the doctors on the front lines with a number of new injuries to be treated. It is estimated that over a 7 year period, nearly 41,000 men lost at least one limb. This extreme spike in the number of men being sent home with such a debilitating injury caused great concern and motivation to improve the quality of artificial limbs and the care that these men would be receiving for the rest of their lives. This drive led to the opening of Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup, an institution specializing in fitting men with high quality prosthetics and training them for how to utiilize their new limbs in their everyday lives. By the end of the war in 1918, the quality of prosthetics had improved tremendously. Several governments even went so far as to sign contracts promising the continued research and development into this field of medicine for the sake of future soldiers and their families.
As aforementioned, the development of more dangerous weapons presented the doctors on the front lines with a number of new injuries to be treated. It is estimated that over a 7 year period, nearly 41,000 men lost at least one limb. This extreme spike in the number of men being sent home with such a debilitating injury caused great concern and motivation to improve the quality of artificial limbs and the care that these men would be receiving for the rest of their lives. This drive led to the opening of Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup, an institution specializing in fitting men with high quality prosthetics and training them for how to utiilize their new limbs in their everyday lives. By the end of the war in 1918, the quality of prosthetics had improved tremendously. Several governments even went so far as to sign contracts promising the continued research and development into this field of medicine for the sake of future soldiers and their families.