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May. 15th, 2006 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lucianusI found two fascinating websites today about pioneering facial plastic surgery during WWI. Neither site is for the squeamish and after having looked at a number of photos and drawings of soldiers with terrible disfigurement I really wanted to know, "then what happened?" Having sustained these wounds, how long did these men live and what sort of life did they have.
The first site is for Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, where the reconstructive surgeries took place: http://website.lineone.net/~andrewbamji/
And the second is for an art project called Project Facade in which an artist is creating sorts of soft sculpture out of WWI period uniforms based on specific surgical cases handled at Queen Mary's Hospital: http://www.projectfacade.com/
Some of the surgeries were certainly more successful than others and it amazes me that skin grafting of this magnitude was going on at that time, let alone things like complete lower jaw reconstructions. One of the most poignant cases was that of Lt. Lumley, RFC who was horribly burned in a plane crash*. I was reminded of the reminiscences of Amboise Pare and his anger, as a young surgeon, at seeing an old sergeant cut the throat of one of his men who had been terrible burned by gun powder and the sergeant's reply to Pare that he would rather that his mates would have the courage to put him out of his misery if he was in such a bad state. I know what I would personally preferred had I have been in Lumley's place but what can we really to say 90+ years on.
*Lt. Lumley died of his wounds in hospital in 1918, a year and a half after having been wounded.
The first site is for Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, where the reconstructive surgeries took place: http://website.lineone.net/~andrewbamji/
And the second is for an art project called Project Facade in which an artist is creating sorts of soft sculpture out of WWI period uniforms based on specific surgical cases handled at Queen Mary's Hospital: http://www.projectfacade.com/
Some of the surgeries were certainly more successful than others and it amazes me that skin grafting of this magnitude was going on at that time, let alone things like complete lower jaw reconstructions. One of the most poignant cases was that of Lt. Lumley, RFC who was horribly burned in a plane crash*. I was reminded of the reminiscences of Amboise Pare and his anger, as a young surgeon, at seeing an old sergeant cut the throat of one of his men who had been terrible burned by gun powder and the sergeant's reply to Pare that he would rather that his mates would have the courage to put him out of his misery if he was in such a bad state. I know what I would personally preferred had I have been in Lumley's place but what can we really to say 90+ years on.
*Lt. Lumley died of his wounds in hospital in 1918, a year and a half after having been wounded.
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THANK YOU!
Date: 2006-05-17 08:05 pm (UTC)Re: THANK YOU!
Date: 2006-05-17 08:47 pm (UTC)