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Essay On Civil War Medicine

800 Words4 Pages

The Civil War and Modern Medicine The Civil War greatly contributed to modern medicine techniques by making astounding discoveries and changing medical practices to what we know today. Doctors, Surgeons, and Soldiers all had to face the hardships of the battle field and the consequences they encountered while being in the war zones. The most challenging oppression faced was the amount of contagious diseases that spread during that time. Though these illnesses were incredibly difficult to treat, they helped doctors learn how to treat them and how to avoid them. The many hundreds of injuries encountered on the daily caused big challenges for transporting patients. Surgeons had to deal with the horror of being on the battle field while searching …show more content…

Jonathan Letterman spent many weeks creating a new system to care for injured patients. He put together more than 50 ambulances during 1862 to transport injured soldiers. His techniques became standard and contributed to today’s ambulance protocol. Ambulances during the Civil War consisted of a horse-drawn carriage that held two patients. Plastic Surgery became popular after the war, and helped wounded soldiers re-create facial structures. Plastic surgeons used many new procedures to re-build a soldiers facial bones for the first time. Gurdon Buck became one of the first surgeons to perform Plastic Surgery on a soldier. He used a never before seen approach to reduce scarring. Embalming deceased soldiers also became popular because it was the only way to send a body back to its family. Railroads refused to carry dead bodies without embalming them first. Embalming remained a popular practice and eventually became a staple way to bury the dead. Dr. Thomas Holmes became the first surgeon to embalm a deceased soldier; and after being successful, Prosthetics became extremely popular after the war. So many amputations were performed because they could be done quickly and messily, however this left many former soldiers suffering to resume normal life. After the war, 133 patents were filed over the creations of

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