What should you do if a patient is fainting?
Position the person on his or her back. If there are no injuries and the person is breathing, raise the person's legs above heart level — about 12 inches (30 centimeters) — if possible. Loosen belts, collars or other constrictive clothing. To reduce the chance of fainting again, don't get the person up too quickly.
What is the medical significance of fainting?
Fainting occurs when your brain temporarily doesn't receive enough blood supply, causing you to lose consciousness. This loss of consciousness is usually brief. Fainting might have no medical significance. Or the cause can be a serious disorder, often involving the heart.
How were wounds treated in WW1?
Treatment of War Wounds: A Historical Review. After battlefield evacuation, usually by helicopter, surgeons evaluated the wound, and the decision to amputate was made by an orthopaedic specialist. The open-flap amputation was the preferred procedure, with delayed closure, although the circular method also was allowed.
How did WW1 affect the medical field?
The then-unprecedented mass casualties in World War I (1914–1919), with horrific wounds from machine guns and shell fragments, and the effects of poison gas, created terrific strains on British and French medical units.
How was shell shock treated?
In World War I this condition (then known as shell shock or 'neurasthenia') was such a problem that 'forward psychiatry' was begun by French doctors in 1915. Some British doctors tried general anaesthesia as a treatment (ether and chloroform), while others preferred application of electricity.
How did World war 2 change healthcare?
World War II also fundamentally transformed health care provision nationwide. By rewarding physicians' board certification with rank and pay, the military catalyzed medical specialization in post-war America. Equally important, it remade the Veterans Administration (VA; now Veterans Affairs) hospital system.
What was medical care like during ww2?
During the war, surgery techniques such as removing dead tissue resulted in fewer amputations than at any time. To treat bacterial infections, penicillin or streptomycin were administered for the first time in large-scale combat. A Navy corpsman tends to a wounded Marine on Okinawa, Japan, in May 1945.
What method did soldiers use to counteract gas attacks?
Primitive cotton face pads soaked in bicarbonate of soda were issued to troops in 1915, but by 1918 filter respirators using charcoal or chemicals to neutralise the gas were common.
Did they have anesthesia during ww2?
Similarly, World War II physician–anesthetists showed they could provide complex anesthesia care, such as pentothal administration, regional anesthesia, and tracheal intubation, with aplomb and gained the support of surgical colleagues who facilitated their growth within a medical profession.
Were antibiotics used in ww2?
World War II saw major advances in medical technology including the mass production of penicillin. On March 14, 1942, U.S. made-penicillin was used to successfully treat the first patient for septicemia, or blood poisoning.
Did medicine improve during ww2?
World War II saw the expanded use of antibiotics as a very significant advance. Sulfa drugs, discovered in 1935, and penicillin, developed in 1939, have led the way to the obvious world-wide benefit we have today from any number of effective antibiotics.
What did doctors do in WWII?
medical advances Physicians, medics, and corpsmen dispensed quinine and atabrine as malaria suppressants. Advances in combat surgery saved countless lives. Surgical removal of dead or dying tissue—debridement—reduced the danger of infection as did the delayed closure of wounds.
How did the First World War change medicine and medical treatment?
Medical Advances Many operations were performed during the war thanks to this. Blood was first stored successfully during World War One. Doctors could now give blood transfusions to soldiers. Before, soldiers with burns, tissue damage and contagious diseases would have usually died.
What happened to soldiers who breathed in gas?
The most widely used, mustard gas, could kill by blistering the lungs and throat if inhaled in large quantities. Its effect on masked soldiers, however, was to produce terrible blisters all over the body as it soaked into their woollen uniforms.
Why was poison gas not used in ww2?
The Nazis' decision to avoid the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield has been variously attributed to a lack of technical ability in the German chemical weapons program and fears that the Allies would retaliate with their own chemical weapons.
What does mustard gas smell like?
Sulfur mustard is also known as “mustard gas or mustard agent,” or by the military designations H, HD, and HT. Sulfur mustard sometimes smells like garlic, onions, or mustard and sometimes has no odor. It can be a vapor (the gaseous form of a liquid), an oily-textured liquid, or a solid.
What was the impact of the First World War on plastic surgery?
The First World War saw a significant increase in head and facial injuries resulting from trench warfare. The experience surgeons gained from treating such injuries contributed to the emergence of plastic surgery as a new medical specialism.
Why did the surgeon amputation?
Ultimately, amputation was the only way to halt the spread of life-threatening infections such as gangrene .
What was the impact of bullets and shrapnel on the military?
Bullets and shrapnel added a new dimension to infection. They carried fragments of clothing and debris deep into the body to become the seats of infection —until the arrival of antibiotics, this was a major cause of death in military hospitals.
How many people died in the gas attack?
One gas attack reportedly killed 5,000 people and damaged another 10,000 for life.
How Are Fainting Spells Evaluated?
If you have episodes of fainting, your doctor will first want a complete description of the symptoms and events surrounding these episodes. For instance, the doctor may ask:
What Are the Treatments for Fainting?
If you are with someone who faints, there are a number of things you should do. If they are sitting, carefully support them in a bent position, with their head between their knees.
How to help someone who faints?
If someone else faints 1 Position the person on his or her back. If there are no injuries and the person is breathing, raise the person's legs above heart level — about 12 inches (30 centimeters) — if possible. Loosen belts, collars or other constrictive clothing.#N#To reduce the chance of fainting again, don't get the person up too quickly. If the person doesn't regain consciousness within one minute, call 911 or your local emergency number. 2 Check for breathing. If the person isn't breathing, begin CPR. Call 911 or your local emergency number. Continue CPR until help arrives or the person begins to breathe.
Is it a medical emergency to faint?
Fainting might have no medical significance. Or the cause can be a serious disorder, often involving the heart. Therefore, treat loss of consciousness as a medical emergency until the signs and symptoms are relieved, and the cause is known. Talk to your doctor if you faint more than once.