Rough Draft
5/1/18
Medicine changing because of World War Two
*Introduction Daily thousands of soldiers died from wounds and injuries from the battle, what adaptations will doctors make without the proper medical equipment during a time of crisis? For centuries wounded soldiers of every nation were responsible for much of their own care. Medical attention was primitive and often not a high priority for military planners beyond the officer corps. Sick and injured men had to find their own way home from the battlefields.“If any good can be said to come of war, then the Second War War must go on record as assisting and accelerating one of the greatest blessings that the 20th Century has conferred …show more content…
Called ‘M+B 693’ it was used as a treatment for sore throats, pneumonia, and gonorrhea. A development of ‘M+B 693’ was ‘M+B 760’. Both proved very effective as treatments against infections. However, the very nature of war meant that both treatments were needed in far greater quantities than during peacetime. While penicillin had been discovered pre-war by Sir Alexander Fleming, it took the war to force companies to develop a way of making the highly effective medicine on an industrial scale. Even though there were many changes in warfare, one problem that didn't change was the time between when a soldier was wounded and when he would be operated on by a surgeon. In the British Army, the average time was 14 hours. With the use of a penicillin dressing, the chance of a wound getting infected was significantly reduced and survival chances dramatically increased. By increasing the chances of survival for those wounded, the other major development in World War Two was the treatment of those who had received severe wounds. (information gathered from https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/medicine-and-world-war-two/