The Oskaloosa herald., 1918-09-12
WOUNDED LIMBS
RECONSTRUCTED
WAR DEVELOPS SCIENCE OF OR
THoPEpIc SURGERY.
MAKE SHATTERED men WHOLE
Wonders are Accomplished. Disabled
limbs Taught to Act, and Grip
pied Soldiers Made Fit for
Duty or Occupation.

LONDON, sept 0.--lnlS war uHSdSVu
demons of destruction heretofore un
known TO warfare
To combat them, surgery has reor'
ganized its technique.
Great has been the development OF
wars power to tear down, greater by
far is the process of science in the
work of rebuilding. A concrete proof
of this is shown in the record of the
huge Military Orthopedic hospital
here. with which the American Red
Cross orthopedic hospitals in London
are allied. Three-fourths of the pa
tients in these institutions are being
made fit to re-enter the army in some
form of service.
The remarkable achievements OF sur
gerry have been no more striking than
the results obtained by the slow, pa
tent processes of orthopedic treat
ment. In fact, the latter has made
gains even more spectacular than
those of surgery, for orthopedic SCI
enee, which before the war was more
or less obscure and humble little bro
Their to surgery. has grown almost
overnight TO fall stature.
Began With Children.
The word orthopedic literally means
making a little child straight The sci
ence began with the treatment oil
children's deformities. Now il is APP
piled to restoring TO use soldiers arms
and legs which have been stiffened or
distorted by wounds, accidents and
disease.
The problem of the war cripple is
met first by ingenious surgery and
manipulation and the careful educa-
ton of men in the use of the disabled
limbs; second, by training disabled
soldiers in the trade for which their
disablement least handicaps them. The
halfway station between the two is
the gymnasium" ...
AS the visitor follows the officer di.
rector into the Military Orthopedic
gymnasium he sees a score of soldiers
seated on benches. A sergeant at a
desk in the far corner rises as the
director approaches. 7"AIl ready, Sir
he reports The director turns TO the
men with brisk Garry on"
Slowly the men move out into the
room and take their places before the
various pieces of apparatus. Some go
up to the big adjustable horizontal
beams which stretch across the room
and place their hands on beam about
shoulder high. One approaches long
strip of canvas with broad stripes run
ming from end 10 end. A pale boy
stretches out on a mat-coYered bench
and, motionless, stares up at the cell
ing. The majority range themselves
along the walls at ladders, climbing
ropes and hand grasps. No one speaks.
Apparently there is no movement. Alb
solute quiet prevails.
Strange Sights Seen.
1t is a strange sight for the visitor.
A gym to him has meant a place for
vigorous exercise and noisy games
Here everyon seems TO be perfectly
motionless except the soldier on the
striped canvas who with great effort
and infinite caution is attempting to
move along one Of the black lines. He
is trying to teach a shell shattered
foot TO walk again.
The visitor was taken by an Ameri-
can army surgeon into the message
and electric treatment room, spa
cious ward where dozen or more
soldiers were sitting quietly while
nurses masaged and worked over their
injuries. The young women, kindly
sympathetic, smiled always and talk
ed encourageingly to the patients. Psy-
ehology of encouragement is well un-
dersto0d and carried out in this hos
pital.
In this hospital each patients case
is carefully studied and general plan
of individual treatment is mapped out.
Several operations may be necessary,
and by means OF the X-ray the sur
geons note carefully the patients pro-
SItSb. luOuSduuB vi ilcll are DcluS re-
habitated who, before the war would
have been discarded as cripples.
After a patient has progressed TO
such point that his injured arm or
leg has begun to function, he is ready
for the most interesting part, to him,
of his treatment-work in the so
called curative workshops. a unique
and highly important feature OF the
Military orthoped.c hospital
II is not the purpose of these shops
to teach trades. After they have been
discharged from tie orthopedic hos
pital, the government sends the pa
tients to various technical schools for
that kind of training. The orthopedic
workshops are purely curative, and
the work 10 which patient is assign
ed IL chosen with special regard to
his particular injury. For example,
men suffering from adhesions or weak
muscles OF the feet, are put TO work