Amputations
Do you close your eyes when you watch a scary or gory movie? Does the sight off blood send shivers down your back? Even the slightest pain make your eyes fill with tears? Just imagine having that feeling haunt you everyday. That’s what life was like on the battlefield for those who lost a limb. Amputations were an important, but gruesome reality of medical treatment in The Civil War.
Amputations in The civil War were a disturbing and common procedure. Three out of four surgeries were amputations. New technology and weapons had much to do with the fact that there were so many amputations, like the minie ball ("Civil War Battlefield Surgery”) when a minie ball struck a solider; it would carry dirt and bacteria into the wound. It would also shatter the bone, so surgeons had no choice, but to amputate the limb. Battlefield surgery was very low in standards compared to surgery today. Many people thought that anesthesia was not used in The Civil War, but actually it was used in some surgeries. The anesthesia was applied to a cloth and put over the nose or mouth until the patient became unconscious. The surgeon would cut off the blood flow with a tourniquet. After that he would take a scalpel and slice through the outlying tissue and flesh (."Civil War Medicine”) Then he would use a bone-saw tool called a capital saw to saw through the bone. It had replaceable blades. After the bone and flesh were sliced off, the surgeon of the North would take silk sutures, and cotton sutures in the South, and then sew the major arteries and veins together. Then the limb would be dropped in a pile that was thrown out after the day. If the surgeon was fast, an amputation would take 10 – 15 minutes. ("Amputation.") The lack of water on the battlefield meant that the surgeons did not wash their hands and tools after the surgery, which leads to bacteria being spread. With the unsanitary conditions, one out of four people whom had amputations preformed, died....