Tag: World War I
-
Psychological preparation for war: Early life experiences
Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States I suspect that few early life experiences fully prepare one psychologically for the realities of war. Mine certainly did not. However, my introduction to post-traumatic stress and moral injury, frequent war sequelae, occurred at home while I was growing up. When I was nine years old, my younger brother…
-
St. Mary’s Hospital, birthplace of penicillin
Anabelle S. SlingerlandLeiden, NetherlandsKevin BrownLondon, England On April 23, 2018, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge left the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London with their new baby boy. Fans of the Royals, who had been camping outside St. Mary’s for weeks, and the crowds and photographers who had gathered for the…
-
“Mental Cases” by Wilfred Owen: The suffering of soldiers in World War I
Alice MacNeillOxford, United Kingdom Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,Baring teeth that leer like skulls’ tongues wicked?Stroke on stroke of pain, — but what slow panic,Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?Ever from their hair and through their hand palmsMisery swelters.…
-
Women changing medicine
Lesley CampbellDarlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia This is my account of three generations of women doctors in my family who in different times and different places were subjected to persecution or at least discrimination because of their race, religion, and gender. The account is written in the hope that society in general and medicine in…
-
The Polish White Cross—Birthed on American soil to support Polish soldiers abroad
Magdalena GrassmannBialystok, Poland Eva NiklinskaNashville, Tennessee, USA Polish medical heritage in the United States has a long history built on the efforts of Polish physicians, nurses, and pharmacists in many American universities, hospitals, and private practices. It advanced the frontiers of science and addressed medical needs during World War I. Although Poland was not independent…
-
Ludwik Fleck, physician in Lwow Ghetto
George M. WeiszSydney, AustraliaAndrzej GrzybowskiPoland Dr. Ludwik Fleck, a pioneer in the early diagnosis of infectious diseases, was born in 1896 in Lwow, then known as Lemberg and until World War I, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Graduating from Lwow University Medical School, Dr. Fleck became interested in medical research and by 1931 had made…
-
Cournand and Richards: Pioneers in cardiopulmonary physiology
Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States During World War I among the allied forces were an artillery lieutenant just out of college and a medical student who acted as an auxiliary battle surgeon because of the high mortality among battalion surgeons. They were, respectively, Dickinson W. Richards, Jr. (1895—1973) and Andre Cournand (1895—1988). Eventually they…
-
The Siamese Expeditionary Force of World War I and the Spanish Flu
Khwanchai PhusrisomStephen MartinMahasarakham, Thailand The Siamese military presence In July 1918, 1284 Siamese volunteers arrived in Marseilles by ship1. Their air force personnel did not see action because their training had not been completed before the end of the war. The ground troops (Fig 1) had been trained, but being too few to form an…
-
Medical and scientific innovations arising from warfare
Brian OmondiNairobi, Kenya Perhaps the only bright side of war is that it impels nations to make medical and scientific innovations. War has long been portrayed as being the best school for surgeons and even for doctors.1 An association between medical services and the military can be traced back to ancient Greece, and the link has…