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Created by
Serghie Kaur

Cards (80)

  • What were the medical developments before WW1?

    -Aseptic surgery
    -X-rays
    -Blood transfusions
  • What was aseptic surgery?

    -Lister used carbolic acid to kill infection, from 1865
    -Required to wash self and surgical equipment was sterilised
  • What were the problems initially faced with carbolic acid?

    -surgeons could cough from smell
    -windows then had to be left open which allowed bacteria in and diffused the point of a clean free surgery.
  • What were x-rays?

    -Discovered by Rontgen in 1895
    -Used in hospitals from 1896
    -Not fully understood
  • What were blood transfusions?

    -First performed by Blundell in 1818
    -In 1894,Wright found chemicals which prevented blood from clotting
    -In 1901,Landsteiner discovered blood groups
  • What was the aim of trenches?
    -To act as a barrier to stop the rapid advance of the German army.
    -At first, quickly and easily built using few materials
    -they were meant to be temporary and everyone expected war to end in a years time.
    -Trenches were where most of the war was fought, because of stalemate.
    -Dangerous to come out of trenchant as advancements in complexity of weapons and gas, became harder to break through.
  • How did shelling contribute to the problems faced on the western front?
    Destroyed roads
  • How did the battlefield contribute to the problems faced on the western front?

    Used to farmland so bacteria from fertilisers remained
  • How did the ambulance wagons contribute to the problems faced on the western front?

    Drawn by horses, but shaky so they worsened injury
  • How did the base hospitals contribute to the problems faced on the western front?

    On the coast, had operating theatres.
  • Describe the underground hospital or Arras?

    -Opened in 1916
    -Fully operational
    -700 spaced for stretchers and beds
    -Operating theatre, electricity and water
    -Abandoned when the water supply was destroyed in the Battle of Arras in 1917
  • What were the RAMC and what did they stand for?

    -Royal Army Medical Corps
    -Included doctors, ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers.
  • What were the FANY and what did they stand for?
    -First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
    -Sent women volunteers to work as nurses on the western front
  • What was the chain of evacuation?
    The efficient system to get the wounded away from the frontline to a safe area where they could be treated.
  • What was the process of the chain of evacuation?

    1)Stretcher bearers
    2)Regimental Aid posts
    3)Main dressing stations
    4)Casualty Clearing Stations
    5)Base hospitals
  • What was the role of stretcher bearers?
    -Collected wounded from the frontline, sometimes during a break in fighting, often under fire.
    -Had to deal with-mud ,shell-craters and crowded ,twisting trenches
    -Carried basic medical supplies-bandages and morphine for pain relief.
    -Only 16 sbs per a 1000 battalions never enough
  • What was the role of the regimental aid posts?

    Gave immediate first aid
    Aimed to get soldiers back to combat.
  • What was the role of the main dressing stations/field ambulances?

    Dealt with more serious injuries in bunkers and tents
    where the wounded were sent in order to be sorted into more or less serious cases known as triage.
  • What was the role of the casualty cleaning station?

    Dealt with more critical injuries in schools or old factories
  • What was the role of the base hospital?

    -Near the coast, so wounded could travel back to Britain
    -Doctors specialised in specific injuries
  • What were the different medical conditions experienced after or during war?

    -Trench foot
    -Shell shock
    -Gas gangrene
    -Gas injuries
    -Shrapnel and bullet injuries
    -Trench fever
  • What was trench fever?
    What was it caused by?
    What were ways of treatment and prevention?
    What were symptoms of trench fever?
    -Disease transmitted by body lice-infected armies in area such as France or Flanders.
    -By 1918, the cause of trench fever had been identified as contact with lice.
    Treatment/Prevention:
    -Delousing stations set up.As a result, there was a decline in the numbers experiencing the condition.
    Symptoms:
    -Flu like symptoms with high temperature
    -Headache and aching muscles
    -Condition was a major problem-affected half a million men on the western front
  • What was trench foot?
    What was it caused by?
    What were ways of treatment?
    What were the ways of prevention?
    What were symptoms of trench foot?
    -A medical condition to the feet from exposure to damp, unsanitary cold conditions.
    -Caused by standing in cold water and mud for prolonged periods
    Prevention:
    -Soldiers rubbed whale oil into feet to protect them.
    -Tried to keep feet dry and regularly charge socks
    Treatment:
    -If gangrene developed, then amputation was the only way to stop the disease from spreading along the leg
    Symptoms:
    -Painful swelling of feet from standing in cold mud
    -If reached second stage of trench foot, gangrene set in.
    Gangrene-decomposition go body tissue due to loss of blood supply.
  • What was shell shock?
    What was it caused by?
    What were ways of treatment and prevention?
    What were symptoms of shell shock?
    -Phrase used in WWI to describe post traumatic stress.
    -Psychological disorder that developed in soldiers who had major traumatic or upsetting experiences during the war.
    Cause by stress of warfare
    Treatment:
    -Craiglockhart hospital in Edinburgh treated 2,000 men for shell shock.
    -Some cases such as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen this included treatment back in Britain.
    -Conditions were not well understood during this period-some soldiers who experienced shell shock were accused of cowardice.Many punished-some shot.
    Symptoms:
    -Tiredness,Headaches,Loss of speech, uncontrollable shaking and complete mental breakdown.
    -Nightmares, depression, flashbacks
    -Suggested that approximately 80,000 British soldiers experienced shellshocked.
  • What was gas gangrene?
    What was it caused by?
    What were ways of treatment and prevention?
    What were symptoms of gas gangrene?
    -Soil in the region, which had been farmed with fertiliser before the war contained bacteria for:
    -Gas Gangrene-A bacterial infection that produces gas in tissues in gangrenous wounds.
    -When wounds were exposed to the soil, the presence of bacteria made infection more likely
    -No cure for gas gangrene, the bacteria for gas gangrene spread through the body quickly and could kill the person within a day.
  • What was gas attacks?
    What was it caused by?
    What were ways of treatment and prevention?
    What were symptoms of gas attacks?
    Where chemicals were used as weapons.
    -Not a major cause of death, only 6,000 British soldiers died as a result of gas attacks however it was feared largely.
    Prevention:
    -Before 1915, soldiers developed their own system of gas masks.
    -They soaked cotton pads with urine and pressed them to their faces.
    -The British army gave troops on the western fronts masks from 1915, which became more sophisticated overtime.
  • What was shrapnel and bullet injuries?
    What was it caused by?
    -In case study of over 200,000 wounded men, high explosive shells and shrapnel was responsible for 58% of wounds.
    -When a shell exploded, could kill or injure a soldier instantly, it also scattered shrapnel, travelled at high speeds over a wide area.
    -When men injured of shrapnel or bullets the metal would penetrate their body.
    -60% of injured were to the arms and legs
  • What would the bacteria in soil of the battle field cause?

    -Soil in the region, which had been farmed with fertiliser before the war contained bacteria for:
    -Tetanus-A bacterial disease that affects your nervous system.
    -Gas Gangrene-A bacterial infection that produces gas in tissues in gangrenous wounds.
    -When wounds were exposed to the soil, the presence of bacteria made infection more likely
  • What was tetanus?
    What was it caused by?
    What were ways of treatment and prevention?
    -Soil in the region, which had been farmed with fertiliser before the war contained bacteria for:
    -Tetanus-A bacterial disease that affects your nervous system.
    -When wounds were exposed to the soil, the presence of bacteria made infection more likely
    Treatment:
    1914-Impact of tetanus was reduced by the use of anti-tetanus injection
  • What was a way that reduced head injuries on the western front?

    -To protect against head injuries, a trial use of the Brodie helmet was carried out in 1915.
    -Brodie Helmet-A steel helmet with a strap, that prevented it from being thrown of the head in an explosion.
    -Reduced fatal head wounds by 80% so helmet was provided to all soldiers on the Western Front.
  • What type of gas was chlorine and where was it used?

    -First used by Germans in 1915, at Second Battle Of Ypres.
    -Led to death by suffocation.
    -At the time, medical services had no experiences in dealing with gas attacks, had to experiment with treatments
  • What type of gas was phosgene and when was it used?

    -First used at the end of 1915 near Ypres.
    -Similar effects as chlorine, death by suffocation
    -However ,it was faster acting-killing an exposed person within 2 days.
  • What type of gas was mustard and when was it used?
    -First used by Germans in 1917.
    -Odourless gas that worked within 12 hours.
    -Cause internal and external blisters, that could pas through clothing to burn the skin.
  • What was the purpose of sandbags in the trenches?

    -Absorbing bullets-reduced impact
    -provided stability-trench did not collapse
  • What was the purpose of a dugout?

    To take cover/rest
  • What was the purpose if a duckboard?

    -Prevent soldiers feet getting wet
    -Stopped ground from caving in
  • What was the purpose of a wooden periscope?
    Used to see into no mans land, without being detected by opponent.
  • What was the purpose of barbed wire?

    Prevent enemy from entering the trench
    Slow the enemy down from retreating into the trench.
  • What was the communication trench?

    -Ran between other trenches-connected them all.
    -Easier for soldiers to navigate in the dark.
  • Why were trenches dugout in a zig zag pattern?
    Wanted to limit the impact of bullets and grenades.