Hello, everybody. Today we’re going to talk about one of the most terrible wars in the last decades. Although it took place mainly in Europe, All the countries from all over the world were involved. We’re speaking, of course, about the First World War, which took place from 1914 to 1918. In this terrible war, about sixteen million people died. Despite the enormous human cost, the war brought some positive consequences. It was due to the nature and scale of the horrors of the battlefield that several important medical advances were made, for example, new equipment. Also, different techniques were developed in a short time to treat a huge number of injuries and diseases.

In the First World War, new weapons were created with the purpose to kill on an industrial scale, such as machine guns, tanks, and poison gasses. These produced many deaths and about twice as many injuries. Those injuries were severe, so you had to be translated to a medical establishment. That is why the medical field had discoveries and came up with solutions for new problems.

The first discovery that you probably know is X-rays. They were created in 1895, but they were used much more widely during the war when they could detect fragments of bombs and bullets. They allowed doctors to see where these objects were and extracted them.

The second medical advance was stretchered for carrying injured people. It had also been used before the Great War, however, the development of rescuing the soldier from the battlefield, by delivering stretcher-bearers to bring them back as quickly as possible, was completely a revelation.

The next medical discovery was the blood transfusion. It was recently discovered when the Great War happened. It was done person-to-person with a tube transferring blood from one person to another. The problem with this technique was that it wasn’t practical and it carried a high risk. Because of the situation, a better solution was developed: indirect transfusion as we know it nowadays. They found out that the blood could be stored on ice for 26 days. This technique helped to save a lot of lives on the battlefield.

The final medical advance was the anesthetist. This advance was marvelous because most of the treatments required to be unconscious.

So when Henry Boyle invented the machine which could provide a steady flow of oxygen, nitrous oxide, and ether, this was the principle of the anesthesia machines that followed. Operations without pain – a wonderful innovation.

So when you have an X-ray, donate blood, or undergo an operation, remember all those doctors, nurses, researchers, and patients from World War 1 who helped to discover or improve this equipment and techniques.