World War I and Prosthetics

                                                                              

World War I and Prosthetics

Prior to World War I, most severely injured soldiers often died as a result of their wounds due to gangrene and infection. However, advances in medicine led to many injured surviving but with disabilities such as missing limbs as a result of amputations. Slayer states that there were 10 million deaths during World War I and that at least double that number were left wounded, crippled, or disfigured. (p. 985).

Due to the sheer volume alone of disabled vets, they had a negative direct effect on the pension and welfare systems. One solution was to get these men returned to work and this led to major gains, and mass production, in the area of prosthetic limbs. Because it is nearing the 100^th anniversary of the start of World War I, there is an incredible amount of recent news and photos available. One such article, “The ‘bionic men’ of World War I” by Thomas Schlich (Special to CNN), described the effect of and technology advancements of the Prosthetics industry. In the United States the Artificial Limb Laboratory was established in 1917 at the Walter Reed General Hospital.

The most unusual part of the article was the description of how many of the prostheses merged man and machine, leaving the disabled man firmly attached to his workstation. “An amputee veteran would arrive at his work place in the factory, hook up the remaining part of his limb to the prosthesis, which in turn would be linked to one of the industrial machines in the factory.” (Schlich, 2014). The individual would work like this for hours literally connected to the machine. There is something eerily disconcerting about this particular image. However, I must remind myself that it was in its early stages of prostheses development. 

The evolution of prosthetics and advances transports us to ‘current day’ wherein a double-leg amputee competed in the 2012 Olympics running on carbon fiber blades. It is interesting to note that he wasn’t allowed to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics because they thought he had an unfair advantage. This concept would have been unfathomable 100 years ago.

Note: This is an example of prosthetic advancements and has nothing to do with character, as this individual is currently on trial accused of murder.