#wwi medical

[my-darling-boy]

Still overhauling my new iPad with a custom WWI theme and my search app is a Mercy Dog :)

[theworldofwars]

Oil painting by J Hodgson Lobley. The Operating Theatre, 41st Casualty Clearing Station, 1918. John Hodgson Lobley was an English artist most known for his RAMC paintings during the Great War., and it was noted that "Like many of the artists who witnessed the War first hand, he was deeply affected by what he had seen."

[toothpickalpha]

For day #1 I'd like to start with one of my favorite patients in his book Plastic Surgery Of The Face. Case #14 Private Walter Ashworth. In the battle of the Somme, Ashworth received a very extensive cheek wound. Gillies used existing tissue to create a cheek. To create an evenly sized face, he sacrificed lip length. This case is a also great example for early dental prothstetics used to encourage bone growth and early cheek reconstruction.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

GRIM AFTERMATH OF A GAS ATTACK -- "WAR IS A BLACK HOLE TO AVOID."

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a. WWI-themed art piece titled "Dressing the Wounded During a Gas Attack," pastels on paper/artwork by English artist & occultist, Austin Osman Spare, c. 1919.

Resolution at 765x1023 & 715x960.

IMAGE OVERVIEW: "A wounded British infantryman has his left leg dressed by a man of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Both men wear gas masks as a gas attack is in progress. The wounded man sits beside a bomb damaged tree stump, the RAMC man sitting at his feet with his back to the viewer. The foreground is littered with medical kit, debris and the hand of a dead soldier encroaches into the composition. A shell violently explodes in the background."

-- IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (IWM Art Collection)

Sources: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/25090 & Pinterest.

[disastrouscanasta]

Sleepover weekend! Hobby you’ve always wanted to get into?

my current hobbies are writing and military drill, so i feel like i could get into anything at this point

i have always wanted to be like really knowledgeable about really specific things. so does research on like one kind of wwi medical practice or knowing everything about clock upkeep or being the leading expert in western films count?

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Doctors were there to manage the workforce, removing workers who were so heavily jaundiced that they were likely to die, and then to obscure the cause of death on certificates and avoid paying compensation where possible.

As the war progressed, protective equipment would be issued to munitions workers, and they would be given free milk and subsidised meals to counteract the poison, with shifts reorganised to move women around to give them breaks from the most dangerous areas.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[tragedyposting]

i wish i could learn the things i need to learn for my writing without having to read medical journals i do not have the correct brain for reading medical journals

[noblehcart]

i swear i'm always tempted to add an oc nurse muse because i think i don't write any/that many medical muses until i start writing Mccoy and realize just HOW many medical i do actually have. SIX.

[lamardeuse]

Just a note that Gillies performed these surgeries on WWI soldiers, not WWII. He was doing this over 100 years ago. Incredible stuff.

Gillies first major influx of casualties came from the battle of Jutland, and along with them came his most enduring surgical innovation.

William Vicarage had lost most of his jaw in the battle and to restore it demanded extensive grafting. Vicarage’s new jaw was made from skin grafted from his shoulders, Gillies left the grafted skin attached at the shoulder and fashioned it into a tube maintaining blood flow and thus encouraging it to take to the new site.

He named his invention the tube pedicle and it went on to become a fundamental technique of reconstructive surgery that was used in widely both world wars.

(warning: graphic photos at source)

It makes me so, so angry when I see those posts that are like "HORRIFYING EARLY PLASTIC SURGERY RESULTS FROM WW2," because all of those lists are full of images that aren't the final result and are used for pure shock value. Harold Gillies, who performed most of those surgeries, was an incredibly talented surgeon. Here are some images of the full results of his surgeries.

I need to emphasize that I can't post the "before" pictures that go with these because the men did not have faces. The injuries were so extensive that these men were missing nearly all of their facial features, and through cutting-edge techniques that "looked scary" at the time (e.g. extensive skin grafts), Gillies saved these men from a medical nightmare.

Gillies performed the world's first ftm bottom surgery for trans man Michael Dillon and pioneered mtf bottom surgery! Respect his legacy.

[alias71]

This is my memorial to my great uncle, LCpl. William Alexander Wyber M.M., 11th Battalion, Royal Scots (1897-1974). I hope this is of interest to those who want to know more about individual soldiers who fought in WWI and what life was like for veterans who suffered from mental health issues after the war.

[thefabelmans2022]

i think there should be more movies about living through the great depression i think they would be really interesting and resonant.

[my-darling-boy]

(TW injury description)

I am SO glad you asked I lose my mind over this man. Sidney Beldam! He’s most known for his miraculous recovery from a major facial injury sustained while he served as a young sergeant in the First World War. If you’ve read the Facemaker by Lindsay Fitzharris you might recognise him! Sources differ slightly about his story, so I’ve pieced it together as best I could. The photos below were from about February 1919!

Born in 1897, Sidney was about 17 living with his mother in Cambridge, England when the Great War commenced. While he didn’t enlist initially, he was soon conscripted when it came about in 1916 though thankfully he was in a non-combatant role driving lorries transporting soldiers to boats headed for France. It’s where he learned he enjoyed driving! However in April 1917, Sidney was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and eventually rose to the rank of sergeant where only 7 months later, his life would change forever.

During the battle of Passchendaele, one of the muddiest most gruelling segments of the war, Sidney was on the frontlines when a shell burst, sending a shrapnel fragment tearing diagonally through his nose and the right side of his face. The young soldier collapsed face first into the mud which ended up saving his life as falling backwards would have caused him to choke on his own blood. For three days Sidney laid in a mangled heap floating in and out of consciousness while vermin scurried about his body and the other dead and wounded around him. No one would ever know the details of those agonising three days, but the trauma he experienced there left him with a lifelong phobia of rats and cockroaches. After the initial wounded had been cleared out, a wandering band of stretcher bearers discovered Sidney alive after one man touched him with his boot fully expecting him to be dead. Miraculously, he was still clinging to life.

The 19 year old sergeant was rushed down the line and then transferred to two different military hospitals where his wounds were hastily stitched in an effort to save his life before infection could spread. Unfortunately, closing the gap where he was missing flesh in his cheek caused his upper lip to be pulled into a sneer and a sunken depression formed where most of his nose was missing around the bridge. Still, he was lucky to be alive, which he later used to remark. Well he was luckier still as he would be transferred to Sidcup military hospital in Kent where he would become a patient under Sir Harold Gillies, the man often considered the pioneer of modern plastic surgery. When he arrived at hospital in 1918, his wounds were healed but his face still bore the heavy trauma of his experience. If you want to see his photographs upon arrival, I won’t post them here but if you search his name, the photos are everywhere. IMO they’re not graphic but I know it can upset some people.

Gillies went to work trying to restore Sidney’s face. This required him to reopen the wound in his cheek where a skin flap was grafted to allow his upper lip to return to normal. He also folded down a skin flap from his forehead in order to create a new nose. Behind his facade, a series of tubes and canals had to be inserted for proper sinus drainage and other unnamed functions. While his initial handful of surgeries did most of the work to reconstruct his face, Sidney underwent over 40 surgeries between 1918 and the 1930s, some reconstructive and some to evacuate the tubes behind the flesh, meaning the common cold was a routinely painful affliction for him. Gillies understood operations were traumatic for the men at Sidcup, especially since most required more than one, and so made a point about creating a lighthearted ward environment, one Sidney says was quite jolly with the staff doing everything they could to make them feel comfortable and dignified as possible. And while I thought the topmost photos were the most updated case study photos for his recovery, I stumbled upon another set from 1920 in the Faces of War by Andrew Bamji I have not seen posted anywhere!

And lads listen. In such a sweet little twist, while Sidney was still recovering from the bulk of his major surgeries, a local pianist by the name of Winifred volunteered to play for the resting servicemen, all of whom had some form of disfigurment or amputation. Carrying in her sheet music, she and Sidney laid eyes on each other for the first time and she later remarked how his smile instantly lit up the whole room! For them, it was love at first sight. The two were soon married, and although it was in the 1920s, I don’t have an exact year for this. This most likely came after Sidney was finally discharged from service in 1921. There is a photo of their wedding and y’all look how SWEET!!

Between his initial surgeries and army discharge, Gillies asked if Sidney would be his personal chauffeur, an offer he took up quickly as he loved driving from his time with lorries during the war. One somewhat humorous account tells of Gillies—who was a bit scattered at times—asking Sidney to renew his driver’s license as the surgeon left it until the last day to take care of; Sidney in a rush waited in a long line at the county hall before jumping the queue and begging the administrator to expedite his employer’s license as it was needed to drive him to the hospital the next day. The man refused, even for a surgeon to get him to his patients. Sidney went to another staff member who was friends with Gillies and begged him the same. The man cheerily agreed but was still in need of a signature from the stubborn administrator who again refused... at least until he found out Harold Gillies nearly won a golfing championship, at which point he took Sidney to his personal office to expedite the license as he was happy to do business for a skilled golfer (apparently saving people’s lives doesn’t matter as much??). A no doubt perplexed Sidney was finally able to get back to the hospital on time!

After his army discharge and most likely about the time of his marriage, Sidney moved back to Cambridge where he worked for the council as a rent collector. He was so well liked, apparently even from the people he collected from, that he soon worked his way to Housing Manager for Cambridge. About this time, he had a daughter, Pam. Every account I read of him, people gush about how sweet he was. His wife recalls how Sidney was always adored by all his family and friends. His granddaughter Marilyn McInnes in an interview said, “He was the most warm and optimistic and loving man. I adored my grandfather, I was constantly on his lap as a small child. I never noticed anything funny about his face, I guess I thought all grandads looked like mine.”

Sadly, Sidney Beldam passed away from cancer at about 80 years old in 1978. But considering the man was given 6 months to live and ended up living for 60 years more surrounded by a large and loving family, I’d say he certainly had a full life. There is a picture of him and his wife in the 60s and they are absolutely charming!!

But anyway that’s me done rambling I’ve a massive crush on him. His story makes me genuinely happy to tell and I’m so glad you asked!

[theworldofwars]

A ward of the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station at Steenwerke, November 1917.

CCS's was the next step in the evacuation chain situated several miles behind the front line, usually near railway lines and waterways, so that the wounded could be evacuated easily to base hospitals.

[toothpickalpha]

For day #8, I'd like to do William Vicarage. He was another severely burned man at Jutland. This is a particularly revolutionary case because it he was the first patient to receive the Tubed Pedical, which if you don't know, was a skin graft invented by Harold Gillies. It's similar to the traditional flap, but it's stitched into a tube shape before being attached to the sight. This increases blood flow and diminishes the risk of infection. In Vicarages case, two V like grafts were taken from his chest and placed onto his cheeks, as seen in the first picture. The poor man had no lips or eyelids, and it took many surgeries and grafts to get him functional again, but as you can see In the last picture with him as an old man, he was infact returned to his former self, and lived a long and happy life.

[promithiae]

I've been on a history kick lately. Anyone have any podcast recommendations with reliable research? Not required, but going into non-western history or niche àsubjects a plus.

[thehmn]

I’ve read so many stories from WWI about how wounded soldiers who couldn’t be taken to a hospital and got infected with maggots had a higher survival rate and healed up nicer than a lot of soldiers who were cared for by doctors because the maggots were far better at removing dead/rotten tissue and leaving healthy tissue intact that if I was far from medical care and ended up with maggots in my wound I’d kick anyone away who tried to remove them “No! Let them work!” Fuck, if I was offered to be treated with the modern maggots bred specifically for wound treatment at a hospital I’d be kinda excited. And if someone else got a maggoty wound far from civilization and freaked out I’d try my damn hardest to convince them to please leave them in.

But try having a normal conversation with someone at a dinner party about that.