Essay On Doctors During The Civil War

"Dr. Crombine was only a county practitioner and had never written a prescription" (Uschan 14). During the Civil War many people were very underprepared. This quote was from 1861 and was very disturbing when people learned about it. Many people complained about the lack of professionalism and amazement. While doctors were unprofessional, surgeons were too. Yet with the advancements in history, doctors and surgeons learned how to treat disease and sickness with experiments. So even though doctors in the Civil War tried their best, they were unprepared for what they were up against. However, they made progress and saved many lives with their surgical technology advancements. During the Civil War the United States accomplished a numerous amount

1860 was a desperate time for doctors (Uschan 13). This included surgeons, doctors, and other medical doctors in the field (19). This resulted in soldiers getting sick more than 3 times a year (11). Additionally this also caused the population to decline. Out of 620,000 soldiers 400,000 of them died, and that was because the Union and the world were not prepared for what was to come ("Sickness and Disease" 11). Unprepared doctors were the reason the war survived. They have saved countless lives and are the reason soldiers could continue fighting and live to see another day. However at the time of the Civil War many doctors were untrained and needed to use their resources to help patients. Many doctors in the Civil War witnessed injuries they never saw before. Some injuries contained headshot wounds and organ failure (Uschan 17). With that some soldiers may not have gotten better or even died because of lack of knowledge (14). The reason for this was because some doctors never attended medical school (15). The reason for this was in the war they took anyone they could. A lot of the time they were not supposed to hire physicians without a liceuse but they did (14).

Surgeons were the most critical doctors during the Civil War. Surgeons perform surgery on the wounded in battle. While they were important, they all have some flaws. Many surgeons who worked during the Civil War had scant to no knowledge of surgery ("Medicine 43). Many surgeons needed to learn on the spot and be fast on their feet. Regardless of the cost, their main objective was to save patients. This meant learning various surgeries on the spot and this could consist of different surgeries they may have never learned before (Uschan 19). This may have led people to die from surgeons' lack of knowledge. Nevertheless some of the reasons soldiers died was from dirty instruments ("Medicine '' 43). There was a possibility that this could lead to death due to the bacteria on the tools that came from different people. It consists of blood, diseases, and dirt (43). This may cause long-term problems such as death and motor functions ("Sickness and Disease '' 13). With that there were many different surgeries performed during the Civil War. Plastic surgery was a significant advancement because of how brutal some injuries were. The reason for plastic surgery was the mercury that was in the cures for sickness at the time started to eat away at the bone and tissue surrounding it. How plastic surgery worked was it replaced the bone structure. Whether that was on their face or body (Uschan 80).