Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-05-29
Stories of the War
Patching Up Soldiers.

LOU OOn u6SU 10 me 1OE
this. 1t long ago lost its significance"
The this" was a woman's wedding
ring, worn and scratched. The mes
sage was blurred and poorly written.
Ring and message, indicating some
hidden tragedy that never will be re-
Bruhn, one of Germany's most dis
tinguished dental surgeons, for the
furtherance of his present life work
the patching up of soldiers whose
jaws and teeth have been shot away.
The patching up process required
much gold. DIR. Bruhn's clinic is free,
and, thus far at least, unsupported
from any official quarter. AS his
fame has gone out over Germany, how
ever, his gold reserve has increased
amazingly A famous actress has
given a heavy medallion, the gift of
the ruler of a German State. A noted
literatures has donated a similar gift
from the King of Sweden. Wedding
rings seal rings, necklaces, gold coins
from England and from Turkey, even
old gold teeth, have poured in on DR..
Bruhn, to be melted up and find their
way into the mouths of wounded SOL
diers
Men who have viewed war from all
angles and who are intimately &C
quainted with it's horrors have de-
clared repeatedly that the worst of it
is in the hospitals. The orthopedic
institutions, where the soldiers are
painstakingly made new again so that
they may go back to the front, are
infinitely depressing.
But they cannot compare for sheer
horror with the great institution in
Dusseldorf and with DR.. Bruins pri-
vate clinic, where dozens and scores
of men sit or lie with half of their
faces left, with noses and upper teeth
missing, with hands enclosed in steel
framework that supports broken low
er jaws until newly inserted bones
shall have had time to knit.
The Dusseldorf institution, of which
DR.. Bruhn is the chief surgeon, is de-
voted exclusively to the care of SOL
diers, who have been injured in the
jaws, and is far and away the largest
of its kind in Germany. Weekly it is
turning out men who, aside from
scars and somewhat impeded speech,
are about as good as before the war,
men who a few weeks or months be-
fore were brought in in such shock
ing condition that the layman, if he
could endure to gaze for long, would
despair of ever saving them.
The patients frequently are found
to have rife bullets imbedded in the
bones of their jaws, bullets often that
have been fattened out or twisted by
the compact of lead against bone.
More serious are the shrapnel and
grenade wounds, which tear away
whole sections of the face and leave
a jaw fractured in a score of places.
Through use of the Roentgen ray, or
X-ray, the patients exact injury is
established on his admission. In a,
majority of cases there is some por-
ton that must be replaced by bone
from some part of his body.
Each patient is his own bone sup
ply so to speak, and generally it is
the, shin bone that serves. The ribs
also are a fertile field, and so fast
does nature work, the piece of bone
taken out for use in the jaw is rap
idly replaced by new growth.
One patient in the hospital late in
ing wound that gouged out his whole
lower jaw, has a strip of shin bone IA
centimetreS long in his mouth. On
top of that is a new set of serviceable
teeth. The man is healthy and rea-
sonably happy.
In dozens of cases it is not only
necessary to replace bone, but skin as
well. Here again each man must
supply his own. Great strips of skin
are taken from the patients arms and
grated on to cheeks or chins. Aside
from the scar along the line of stitch
ing there is usually little indication of
the original injury.
Each man is photographed on the
day of arrival, and then at intervals
later as his recovery progresses. To
the layman the results accomplished
are little short of miraculous.
In a recent trip through the hospi-
tai an Associated Press correspondent
had opportunity to compare many Of
the original photographs with the pa
tlents in their patched-up state, and it
was all but incredible that so much
had been accomplished.