western front

Aseptic techniques

Staff wash hands faces and arms before surgery
Rubber gloves and gowns worn
Autoclave = sterilised equipment

X-rays discovered by ____ in ___

Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895

NEGATIVES of X-rays

Exposure to radiation dangerous
Too 90 mins to get image of hand
Machines were very large

Blood transfusions

First ever safe one in 1907

B E F

British expeditionary force

Problems in trenches

Mud- infection
Rats
Trench foot
Lice-trench fever

No man's land

Bit of land between two countries trenches

Front line trench

The trench closest to enemy trenches

Support Trench

Provided back-up and supplies for the front line trenches. Retreat to form front line sometimes

Reserve trench

the third row of trenches

Communication trenches

Ran between front line, support and reserve trenches

Dugouts

Where soldiers slept

barbed-wire fence

Twisted wires with sharp points, make it difficult for enemy soldiers to invade the front line trenches

Duck boards

Boards placed on the bottom of trenches to keep feet dry and out of mud and water.

parapet

Barriers made of sand bags at he front of the trench

Rifles effect

Bullet wound

Machine gun effect

Multiple bullet wounds and shattered bones

Shells and shrapnel

Responsible for 58 percent of wounds

Rifles, machine guns and shells and shrapnel treatment

Helmets
X rays
Thomas splint

Thomas splint

Kept leg rigid of wound
reduced bleeding and infection
Survival rate for type of wound 20% => 82%

Brodie helmet

1915

Chlorine gas

Internal drowning

Mustard gas

Powerful irritant

eyes skin etc

Phosgene Gas

Causes suffocation similar to chlorine gas

Stat for gas

Only 6,000 soldiers dies from gas attacks in the war
Why? GAS MASKS

Gas masks

1915

Soil problems for soldiers

Tetanus
Gas gangrene- treated with amputations

Carrel Dakin solution

Wash out infected wounds of gas gangrene

tetanus treated with ____

Anti tetanus injections

First Battle of Ypres

1914
British lost over 50000 troops

Second battle of Ypres

1915
First time Germans used chlorine gas
British lost 59000

The battle of the Somme

1916
Suffered 400000 casualties by the end
First use of tanks in warfare
Use of creeping barrage

fire artillery before going over the top

The battle of Arras

1917
Chalky area so easy to tunnel through
British had underground network
160000 British and Canadian casualties
Had underground hospital => USEFUL

Third Battle of Ypres

1917
People drowned in mud
245000 British casualties

Battle of Cambrai

1917
first large scale use of tanks

Underground hospital at Arras

Running water, 700 beds and operating theatre. 700m from front line

RAP

Give immediate first aid
Walked or carried on stretchers

Dressing station

Located in abandoned buildings approx 400m away from the front line
Soldiers walk or be carried

CCS

Arrive by ambulance
Safe distance from the front line
Specialise Healing and operating serious injuries like to the chest

Base Hospitals

Located on French and Belgian coast
Continuing treatment longer term care

Field Ambulance

Unit of RAMC
Medical officers + stretcher bearers + orderlies

FANY

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
Women brought their own cars to drive soldiers around

VAD

Voluntary aid detachment
Women volunteered to do nursing

Medical officer

Doctors treating soldiers , worked for the army

Orderly

An attendant in a hospital responsible for the non medical care of patients and the cleanliness and order of the hospital

RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps)

Medical part of the army

Triage

Sorted into groups at a CCS

Walking wounded
Need of hospital treatment
Too severely wounded

Trench foot

Foot rot caused by long periods of time in wet boots gangrene would set in
75000 men effected
Treatment whale oil, changing dry socks, amputations

Trench fever

illness suffered by men in the trenches causing fever, dizziness, and severe body aches
Half a million infected
Caused by lice
Delousing stations, clothes washed

Shell shock

80000 troops experienced
Not well understood
Nightmares, uncontrollable shaking PTSD
Specialist hospital: queens hospital at Sidcup