PROVIDING FOR THE CASUALTIES OF WAR: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE THROUGH WORLD WAR II by BERNARD ROSTKER

Author:BERNARD ROSTKER [ROSTKER, BERNARD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8330-7819-3
Publisher: RAND Corporation
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The amputation centers in France were unique because they provided not only the usual surgical services but also prosthetic services and the advanced physiotherapy that would be the hallmark of the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center almost a century later. The centers incorporated lessons they had learned from the Belgian Medical Corps, which demonstrated the beneficial effects of early weight bearing in the treatment of lower-limb amputations. Through the good offices of the American Red Cross in Paris, simple prosthetic devises were designed and procured, which made it possible to get patients out of bed and walking without other support very shortly after amputation. The amputees were fitted with “provisional legs” with plaster of Paris sockets. With these temporary artificial legs, the men were put through stump drills to strengthen weak muscles and teach balance. Reconstruction aides administered massage and exercise to the bed cases. This was beneficial because it promoted healing, hastened stump shrinkage, prevented muscle atrophy, improved the patient’s morale, and decreased the time before the permanent artificial limb could be fitted (Brackett, 1927, p. 689).

In one way, the Army was well equipped to handle what it expected to be an onslaught of amputations.23 The United States was the world leader in the production of artificial limbs because of the government’s program to provide them to Civil War veterans. In addition, a byproduct of the industrialization after the Civil War was a steady stream of industrial accidents and amputations. One supplier, the Winkley Artificial Limb Company, even had a standing contract with a railroad company to provide “adjustable slip socket legs,” noting that “a man can do double the amount of work upon a perfectly fitting leg” (Reznick, 2008, p. 189). When the United States entered World War I, the artificial limb industry had already been supporting increased demands from the allies for artificial limbs, and the Army estimated that “the industry as a whole, with its existing equipment, could [still] produce a thousand limbs per month in addition to the number required for civilian needs” (Brackett, 1927, p. 716). Fortunately, that number was never needed.

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