The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-08-02
Remaking Of the Eye Region
IT, One of the Wonders
Performed.
OPERATE WHILE GUNS ROAR
Handle Patients With Goodness and
Rapidly Under Constant Menace
Of Death-Wounded Loud In
Praises Of Surgeons.
By c. f, RERTELLl,

region through the transportation of
part Of the mucous membrane and the
grating of eyelids and lashes are
among the marvels Of plastic surgery
accomplished in France during the
war by DIR. Louis Borsch, the famous
American Oculist, who, since August,
1914, has been chief ophthalmic sur
geon at the huge Grand Palais Mill
tary hospital in Paris.
Doctor Borsch has just returned
from tripto the tren ches and field
hospitals; (which BE made at the re-
quest Of the department of health for
the purpose of advising as to the pos
sihility of improving existing methods
of treating wounds Of the eye and
saving the vision Of the thousands Of
soldiers who in this latter phase of
the war are suffering from such injur-
les.
"Three years of constant daily ex-
pericnce in the treatment of eye
wounds at the Grand Palais,' said
Doctor Borsch on his return, 'has en-
ab'e'l NE to witness a very consider
able Improvement in the methods en-
oloyod, and yery"gRatifying results are
now being obtainedu' IT. we clsul(f,Inlye
talon up our task in 1914 with the
benefit of the experience we have
since acquired, our results would GER
tninly have been Hlore than 100 per
cent better.
Under Menace of Death.
"Tho one great lesson we have
learned is that our chances Of Oper-
ating successfully in cases of eye
wounds are enormously increased
when patients are brought to us ira
mchiatCly after they have received
their wounds. The same remark, of
cou:E". applies to all wounds.
gov we'll the heads Of the French
medical service realize this will be
understood when l say that during
my Champagne trip found many
CASES in which. the wounded had been
brought from the trenches to, the
fell hospitals, washed and operated
upon. with all dressings completed,
within four hours Of their receiving
their injuries. The surgeons and
nurses work under the constant men
"" Of death. myself saw them
working in .tirst-aid dugouts and in
!h HOSPITALS just behind the lines
.n,i st nevcr-cnding showers of big
shells. yet they handle their patients
wit! q coolnCss, rapidity and skill
which cnnrot be surpassed In the
operating theater Of a Paris hospital.
''TAe wounded are unanimous in
their praise Of the treatment, they
receive, and so thorough and efficient
s. it that l do not think it possible
10 improve upon the work of the
Held hospitals that we inspected. We
saw many wounded with severe frac-
lures Of the thighs and legs who
we're walking about the wards in
special apparatus four days after
heir being wounded; these men as
sured me they had never suffered
moments pain.
eve also saw many German wound
ID, and there was not one of them who
lid not seem pleased to be prisoner
n French hands. They are treated
With precisely the same care and de-
yotion rs the French wounded, whose
wards they share, and no distinction
whatever is made.
Surgeons Work Wonders.
Dangerous eye wounds. that IN
their treatment call for nerves of
steel in the surgeon and hand that
never deviates hairs breadth, are
tended amid the most hellish uproar
imaginable; the quick and efficient use
of the eye magnet, for instance, for
drawing out shell splinters from the
region of the eye socket has saved
sight in thousands of cases.
UNFORTUNATELY beneath the cease
less cataract Of exploding shells the
face wounds in many, cases are SO
bad that no ophthalmic skill could
POSSIBLY save the sight. But. here
plastic surgery. one of the wonders
Of, the, war, comes in to make the
victims face again presentable. Plas-
tic work goes further tlap the re-