WW1 Medicine

Question 1

What were the 5 stages of evacuation?

Answer 1

• stretcher bearer
• regimental aid post
• field ambulance
• casualty clearing station
• base hospitals

Question 2

When was the battle of the Somme?

Answer 2

July - November 1916

Question 3

When was the battle of Arras?

Answer 3

April - may 1917

Question 4

What is the regimental aid post?

Answer 4

• Close to the front line
• stretcher bearer stage
• sent more serious injuries onto the next stage

Question 5

What is the field ambulance?

Answer 5

• mobile medicine unit of RAMC which set up dressing stations
• a mile back from the front line
• could look after men for a week

Question 6

What is the casualty clearing station?

Answer 6

• larger and better equipped
• situated in buildings several miles from the front line
• staffed by doctors and nurses
• life threatening injuries

Question 7

What were the base hospitals?

Answer 7

• situated near the coast
• doctors who specialised their treatments
• patients could stay for a while
• could be sent home

Question 8

7 injuries and illnesses in the trenches

Answer 8

1. Gas attacks
2. Head injuries
3. Shell shock
4. Trench fever
5. Trench foot
6. Bullets
7. High explosive shells and shrapnel

Question 9

What does the RAMC stand for?
What was it?

Answer 9

• Royal Army Medical Corpse
• provided the majority of the medical care in the war

Question 10

What does FANY stand for?
What does it do?

Answer 10

• First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
• all female voluntary organisation which deploys rapid response teams to support military crises

Question 11

Features of the battle of Ypres?

Answer 11

• Germans had high ground which meant British was in the lower waterlogged area
• Second battle of Ypres April to May 1915/ first use of chlorine gas by the Germans
• 245,000 British casualties
• Extreme condition, lots of rain waterlogged 

Question 12

Features of the battle of the Somme 

Answer 12

• July to November 1916
• 400,000 Allied casualties in total which meant there was a strain on medical service

Question 13

Features of the battle of Arras

Answer 13

• April 1917
• Chalky to rain which meant they could dig tunnels
• Underground rooms with running water and electricity
• Underground hospital had around 700 beds
• 160,000 casualties

Question 14

Features of Battle of Cambria

Answer 14

• robertson set up blood bank before battle
• October 1917
• ## 1st major use of tanks (450)

Question 15

Features of the stretcher bearer

Answer 15

• fetched wounded from trenches and no man’s land
• Carried basic medical supplies like bandages and morphine
• Limited by basic supplies
• Only 16 bearers per 1000 men
• In muddy conditions it took 6 to 8 bearers to carry a stretcher
• Injured had to wait hours or days

Question 16

Features of casualty clearing station

Answer 16

• Around 10 miles from the front line
• seven doctors and nurses
• Operations especially amputations
• Had operating theatres x-ray machines, wards, toilets and kitchens
• used triage system to divide people e.g. minor critical and hopeless
• Could deal with only 1000 men

Question 17

What were the two types of gases used in gas attacks?

Answer 17

Phosgene (1915)
Mustard gas 1915
Caused temporary blindness 

Question 18

Symptoms of trench fever

Answer 18

Itching and flu like symptoms lasting five days

Question 19

Treatment of trench fever

Answer 19

Electric current sent through the body

Question 20

Prevention of trench fever

Answer 20

Wash clothes regularly

Question 21

How many people by 1918 suffered from trench fever?

Answer 21

50%

Question 22

Prevention of trench foot

Answer 22

Soldiers were recommended to change socks twice a day

Question 23

Approximately how many people suffered from shellshock in the war?

Answer 23

80,000
However, it is predicted a lot more

Question 24

What was the Carrol- Dakin method (1917)

Answer 24

Putting sterilised salt solution into wound via tube

Question 25

Drawbacks of Carrol - Dakin method

Answer 25

Had to be made when needed as only lasted six hours difficult when treating large numbers of soldiers

Question 26

What was debridement?

Answer 26

Cutaway damaged and infected tissue

Question 27

What injury was the Thomas splint used on?

Answer 27

Compound fractures

Question 28

What was the survival rate of compound fractures before the Thomas splint?

Answer 28

20%

Question 29

What did the Thomas splint do?(1916)

Answer 29

Pulled leg straight to stop bones grinding and reduce bleeding

Question 30

What was the impact of the Thomas splint?

Answer 30

• Prevented blood loss while patient was being transported to C.C.S. for surgery
• Survival rate increased to 82%

Question 31

What was the solutions made for storing blood?

Answer 31

• in 1915 sodium citrate added to blood able to be stored for two days
• 1916 citric glucose added to blood could be stored for four weeks
• Blood banks set up by the government in 1917
• Portable machine that could be used nearer the front line was made

Question 32

Problems with x-ray machines at the beginning of the war

Answer 32

• not enough
• Overheat quickly and had to be left to cool down it wasn’t possible to x-ray a lot of soldiers

Question 33

How did they improve the use of x-rays?

Answer 33

• More x-ray machines were produced
• Smaller x-ray machines transported around in trucks

Question 34

When was skin graft developed and what were they?

Answer 34

1915 and they were covering up wounds with skin from another part of the body

Question 35

Impact of skin grafts

Answer 35

By 1915 11,000 reconstructive operations were completed