Albemarle Tradewinds September 2016 Web Final

Medicines And Medical Procedures During The War Between The States
By: Dr. Dave and Gary Riggs
(Continued from last month)
In the early part of the war a lowly young assistant surgeon, was shuttled to the sidelines with medical grunt work: changing bandages, suturing wounds, and
grabbing grub for the doctors. But when the surgeons decided there was no point in treating chest wounds, doctors experimented with a new life saving procedure.
At the outset of the war, a sucking chest wound was almost certainly a death sentence. Among French soldiers shot in the chest during the Crimean War (
1853-1856) only eight percent survived. The problem, as doctors came to realize, wasn’t the wound itself, but the sucking. The negative pressure in the thorax was
created by the opening in the chest cavity. The effect often caused the lungs to collapse, leading to suffocation. The doctor found that if he closed the wound with
metal sutures, followed by alternating layers of lint or linen bandages and a few drops of collodion ( a syrupy solution that forms an adhesive film when it dries),
he could create an air tight seal. Survival rates quadrupled, and the doctors innovation soon became standard treatment.
The Plastic Surgery Revolution
Burgan a 20 year old private had survived pneumonia, but the mercury pills he took as a treatment led to gangrene, which quickly spread from his mouth
to his eye and led to the removal of his right cheekbone. He was willing to try anything, in a pioneering series of operations in 1862, a surgeon used dental and
facial fixtures to fill in the missing bone until Burgan’s face regained its shape. The doctor now considered the father of modern plastic surgery, during the war, he
and other surgeons completed 32 revolutionary “plastic operations” on disfigured soldiers. These doctors were the first to photograph the progress of the repairs
and the first to make gradual changes over several operations. They also pioneered the use of tiny sutures to minimize scarring. To some it seemed pretty wacky,
like Sci-Fi for the 19th Century. A newspaper enthusiastically and erroneously described the new treatments. “such is the
progress of the medical department in these parts that half of a man’s face demolished by a mini ball or a piece of shell is
replaced by a cork face”.
The Yankees went into the first battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on July 21, 1862 arrogant and as cocky as a strutting
rooster expecting a mere skirmish. The confederates overwhelmingly won the battle that day making the uppity Yankees
skedaddle all the way back to their capital with their tail between their legs throwing away everything as they ran. Although
1,011 Yankee soldiers were wounded, empty ambulances led the retreat.
Ambulances led the retreat. Most of the civilians drivers at the time were untrained and “of the lowest character”,
according to a Yankee activist whose son died after lying wounded for hours on the battlefield, while his fellow soldiers ran
away scared, passing everything and everybody selfishly thinking only of saving their own skins as the Yankee activist
commented most of theme were cowards and drunkards. It took the medical director of the army 26 weeks to implement a
system to evacuate and care for the wounded, becoming a model for the ambulances to ER system we know today.
Dr. Dave is an Ivy League
Trained Executive Chef and
Early American Historian
Part 5 Next Month
Sons of Confederate Veterans We meet at Vickie’s Villa in
Elizabeth City the 4th Tuesday every month at 7pm
36 Albemarle Tradewinds September 2016 albemarletradewinds.com