Struggle in Russia

When the coalition forces were tortured by bad weather and logistical and sanitation problems, the Russian army also ushered in the arrival of an important person.

He is Nikolai Pirogov, who is not a general or a powerful man, but a surgeon.

Maybe in the world, more people know Nightingale than his name, and even in Russia he doesn't know many people, but his significance to the Russian army is definitely in Nightingale's. superior!

Born in Moscow in 1810, Pirogov entered Moscow University to study medicine at the age of fourteen, became a professor at the German University in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) at the age of twenty-five, and later became a professor of surgery at the St. Petersburg Military Medical College.

In 1847 he served as a military doctor in the Caucasus, where he pioneered the use of ether for field surgery. At the same time, between 1847 and 1852, he published articles in several Russian-language journals introducing ether anesthesia techniques.

He emphasized in these publications that in addition to relieving pain and panic, giving ether to patients who had just been admitted to the hospital would keep them calm and prevent coma, which would help surgeons determine which patients needed immediate surgery.

Of course, these things are superficial and not necessarily correct. Pirogov's most important achievement was the first in the Crimean War.

Arriving in Seestopol, Pirogov was immediately incensed by the chaos and inhumanity of the local handling of the wounded.

He saw thousands of wounded being evacuated to Perekop on unshielded carts. Many died of freezing on the way, and many of the living were severely frostbitten and required amputation.

Due to the lack of means of transport, many wounded were left in filthy barns or simply abandoned on the side of the road.

Moreover, there is a huge shortage of medicines, because many doctors and medical staff secretly sell medicines, and then casually use inferior substitutes. The wounded must pay bribes to doctors if they want to get real treatment.

In addition, the Russian army's field hospital was too small, with only 2,000 beds in total. As a result, the old **** rushed in 12,000 wounded after a wave of reckless sending of heads, and it was immediately overcrowded.

Not only is it overcrowded, but the conditions of the hospital are still very rudimentary, and most of the medical staff are half-baked. They used the butcher's dirty machete for the operation, and they had no concept of the harm of infection due to hygiene requirements. Even Pirogov found that some wounded were lying in a pool of their own blood for two weeks!

After arriving in Sevastopol, Pirogov began to issue orders to the hospital to gradually implement the wounded diversion system he created. The situation at that time was very chaotic. There is no order, and more importantly, the dead, the dying, those in need of first aid, and those with only a few scratches are all mixed together.

At the beginning of the period, Pirogov immediately dealt with those who were seriously injured and asked the nurses to send them directly to the operating room, but when he was still concentrating on treating the wounded, a steady stream of other wounded people came over, making it impossible for him to operate at all. .

Especially when he treated the wounded who were seriously injured and had little hope of treatment, the wounded who had a chance to be treated but died of deterioration due to waiting too long.

"I finally realized that it was pointless, so I decided to be more decisive and more rational!" Pirogov recalled; "In saving lives, the simple organization of the dressing station is much more important than the treatment of the wounded!"

His solution is a simple shunting system. After the wounded are sent to the hospital, experienced doctors are responsible for screening immediately, and they are divided into three groups. Those with serious injuries can be sent to the operating room immediately, and those with minor injuries are sent to the operating room. After receiving a number, they were sent to the dressing station on one side for the junior doctor to debride and bandage. As for those who were seriously injured, they were sent to the church on the other side, and nurses and priests were responsible for taking care of them until they died.

Tolstoy witnessed the transformation of the field hospital first hand, and later described the situation to readers in "Sevastopol in December", highlighting Pigerov's contribution.

In addition, Pigerov also vigorously promoted anesthesia, which greatly improved the work efficiency of him and other surgeons. They have three operating rooms that work seven hours a day and can perform a hundred amputations a day.

He also developed a new technique, such as amputating his ankle at the ankle, where he would leave part of the calcaneus to give the foot a little support.

Generally speaking, when he does amputation surgery, he chooses the amputation lower than other doctors, and tries to minimize the wound and blood loss, because he knows that blood loss after surgery is a serious threat.

More importantly, he also knew the threat of infection, although he thought that the wound was infected because of the dirty substances in the air, so he specially separated those wounded who had clean wounds after surgery and those whose wounds were purulent and gangrenous.

Through these pioneering measures, Pirogov achieved a much higher survival rate than the British and French military hospitals. Sixty-five percent of his arm amputations survived. Thigh amputation was the most dangerous and common operation during the Crimean War. Pirogov's survival rate was 25%, while the French and British troops did not even have 10%.

It has to be said that this is a slap in the face to Britain and France, which theoretically should have more developed medical technology. Especially the British, these hard-headed gentlemen are more out of date and more old-fashioned than the next.

For example, in the treatment of anesthesia technology~www.readwn.com~ Russia and France are more supportive, but the UK is strenuously opposed. For example, Dr. John Hall, the chief medical officer of the British army, issued a memorandum to warn all the surgeons under him: " Don't use chloroform in the treatment of serious gunshot wounds and other open wounds...because no matter how savage it looks, being stabbed by a knife is a powerful and effective stimulus, and it's better to hear a man screaming frantically than to watch him sink silently into the grave Much more!"

I can only shed tears for the poor British wounded. The injuries were enough to suffer, and they had to be tortured again by the butcher doctor. A considerable number of wounded can be said to have died on the operating table.

It's just that those tyrannical British doctors don't care so much. They are more about proclaiming how heroic their patients are and how unafraid of pain, saying that no one can really describe the courage of soldiers. They laugh very little about pain. Will succumb in the face of death.

It is also said that the mind conquers the body, and soldiers in Crimea keep walking into the hospital with a dangling arm or a battered elbow, telling them that they are in good condition and asking them to hurry up for surgery because they are still Rushing to go back to continue fighting and such nonsense.

To tell the truth, there may be such people, but it is not because of their bravery, but because they are afraid of these butcher-like doctors. Their pungent style makes the wounded afraid to stay in the hospital and desperately want to escape!