| Who pioneered blood transfusion in 1915? | The Canadian doctor, Lawrence Bruce Robertson pioneered the use of blood transfusions in the British sector of the western front in the base hospital at Boulogne |
| Who is Geoffrey Keyens? | Geoffrey Keynes is a British doctor and lieutenant in the RAMC who designs a portable blood transfusion kit
His kit didn’t use stored blood because of difficulties in keeping the blood fresh as refrigeration wasn’t possible instead
Keynes added a device to bottle the blood to regulate flow and prevent clotting
By his account is saved countless lives |
| What advanced were made in the storage of blood? | Advances in blood storage include:
- in 1915, American doctor Richard Lewisohn discovered adding sodium citrate to blood allowed for transfusion to be indirect
- also in 1915 Richard Weil discovered blood with sodium citrate could be refrigerated and stored for up to two days
- in 1916 Francis Rous and James Turner found adding a citrate glucose solution to blood allowed it to be stored for up to four weeks |
| What’s an example of the advancement of portable blood in action? | In 1917, in the battle of Cambrai, Oswald Hope Robertson an American doctor stored 22 units of universal donor blood in glass bottles
He built a carrying case for the bottles sin amputation boxes
He called this a ‘blood depot’ |
| What was the effect of Oswald Hope Robertson’s blood depot? | Robertson treated 20 severely wounded Canadian soldiers with the 22 units of blood
They were so badly affected by shock that none of them were expected to survive but in fact of the 20 wounded men, 11 survived |
| What were 20% of all wounds located on? | About 29% of all wounds in the British sector of the Western Front were to the head, face and neck. As it was the most exposed in trench warfare
These injures could be cause by bullets and shrapnel |
| What issues caused brain injuries to likely be fatal at the start of the war? | Brain injuries were likely to prove fatal because of issues such as:
- infection applied to the head just as much as it did to other parts of the body
- there were difficulties involved in moving men with head injuries through the chain of evacuation, they were often unconscious or confused
- few doctors had neurosurgery experience before the war |
| Who is Harvey Cushing? And what did he do? | Harvey Cushing is an American neurosurgeon who developed new techniques in brain surgery on the Western Front
He experimented with the use of a magnet to remove metal fragments from the brain
And used local anaesthetic instead of general anaesthetic - the difference between the two is that general anaesthetic makes the patient fall asleep which caused the brain to swell and this could led to increased risks during surgery
but local anaesthetic leaves them awake however it prevents the nerves in the affected area from communicating sensations of pain to your brain |
| What was the new method of treatment for the observation that: men operated on quickly had a higher chance of survival. | The new method to treatment was that specific casualty clearing stations became chosen as centres for brain surgery |
| What was the new method of treatment for the observation that: it was dangerous to move men too soon after an operation. | The new method of treatment was that patients remained at the casualty clearing stations for three weeks post-surgery |
| What was the new method of treatment for the observation that: injuries that looked fairly minor could be hiding more severe injuries. | The new method of treatment was that all head wounds would always be examined carefully |
| The development of plastic surgery was largely the worked of what doctor? | The development of plastic surgery was largely the work of a New Zealand doctor named Harold Gillies who was sent to the western front in January of 1915 |
| What led Gillies to become interested in facial reconstruction? | Charles Valafier a French man who’d been working for the Red Cross as a dentist since 1914 told Gillies once he was sent to the western front that head injuries that might not kill could cause severe disfigurement and this caused Gillies to become interested in facial reconstruction
He also devised new operation to deal with the problems he confronted as he had no background in plastic surgery |
| How many operations had been carried out by the end of the battle of the Somme and where were they carried out? | Nearly 12,000 facial reconstruction operations had been carried out a year after the key hospital for plastic surgery know as the Queens Hospital in Sidcup, Kent
Gillies also created the hospital design to exactly match his needs |
