Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-08-17


a few in his palate and had loosened
both jaws. He was Immediately
hustled into the dental department.
port his jaws and a bridge-shaped bar
extended from side to side which also
held a set Of new teeth improvised
by the dental laboratory. This work
completed, he was taken to the oper-
ating room and turned over to an
American surgeon who connected the
skin from the upper and lower part
Of his face and fashioned him a brand
new cheek. This man now bears only
the reminder of small scar which
does not detract at all from his ap'
pearance. q, .-0..
A bullet hole In the forehead is
simple matter and Is Immediately filed
in by the same abdominal operation
that was used In the case Of the plate
printer 1t Is a curious scientific fact
that only the mans own flesh VIII
sufice for an operation of this kind,
or that of his twin, so that there Is
not the trouble Of obtaining material
! as is often the case with blood trans
| fusion. One young woman who visit
ed the military hospitals OF Europe
asserts that a protuberent lip Is some
T., times made use of by the surgeon and
cites the case of soldier who glad
+! ly gave up part Of his in order to sup
ply a portion OF his nose which had
been shot of in battle. He Is now
| able to sneeze with perfect equanim.
1ity.
| Another man brought into the Amer
lean Ambulance hospital had a frac-
,tured jaw and an ugly void where
there should have been chin. After
much painstaking work. the surgeon
was able to rebuild this mans face
out Of chaos. The dental department
first attended to his Jaws, and then.
the wound clean, the surgeon succeed
ed in drawing the mans lips up and IN
stretching and moulding his cheeks so
as to form part OF his chin, the other
part being formed by the new skin
which grew up from his lower jaw.
This man, of course. will always have
marred face. but il it had not, been
for the skill Of the surgeon he would
probably not have any at all.
Plastic surgery Is not the only kind
Of surgery that has developed in the
European war. The wounded have
poured into the military hospitals
throughout Europe. crowding the
wards and straining the. equipment
to the utmost Surgeons have been
known to operate on as many as three
hundred patients in four days, yet the
majority Of these are major operations
jority of them pull through. A COM
{es hnf 1f a
man who has been wounded in the leg
and a nerve thereby severed which
causes instant paralysis. Under these
circumstances the -. military surgeon
sews the pieces Of the nerve together
and the, man Is again, able to walk.
Also, there have been several success
full operations in which the surgeon
has removed a bullet from the heart,
or extracted masses of decayed brains
resulting from head wounds.
!. Indeed. almost every case where
surgery Is possible at all 1t has been
amazingly successful. The great trou.
Bile lies in the fact that often the men
are four and five days in transporta.
ton between the battlefield and the
hospital. which usually allows tetanus
or gangrene to set In and work their
havoc. Frozen hands and feet are
also One OF the great Affections of the
, war and are rarely cureable by any
thing but amputation. although they
are now treating them with hot cleo
trical current During the winter
there are thousands of these cases.
| While the American hospitals in
Europe are primarily for the wound
ed, they. make also for the advance
Of medical science. The American
ambulance, for example, has invited
several American universities. includ-
ing the Western Reserve University
Of Cleveland, Harvard University.
John Hopkins and the University of
Pennsylvania and Chicago, to send
over representatives to work in the
hospital for periods of three months
at a time. Thus we are constantly
receiving new influx of ideas with
the return of one young surgeon who
in attending the military hospitals Of
Europe get more practical experience
in month than they would in this
country in year. Already, our citi-
zens are keeping their injured thumbs
and our victims of accidents are hav.
ing their beauty preserved. so that
our future American surgery like that
of Europe will doubtless be increas.
ingly constructive as a result of the
war
and Mrs. T. D. Mum attended the Ell
don fair Thursday, going In the form