Pirateology - Amputation Traditional Cache
La Lunatica: Sorry to have to archive this.
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LESSONS IN BECOMING A PIRATE READ, PRACTICE, LEARN AND BRING YOUR SKILLS TO PIRATEMANIA! 3 in a series of 20 AMPUTATION Should you get injured in battle, before fitting a peg-leg or a hook, you'll need to know how to cut yer arrrrrrrm off! Amputations in the 18th Century were a risky business at best even when done by the most skillful surgeons. Until 1718, a leg amputation above the knee almost always ended in the the patient bleeding to death. In 1718, a French surgeon, Jean Louis Petit, invented the screw tourniquet this dramatically reduced deaths from bleeding to death and made it possible to successfully amputate a leg above the knee (thigh amputations). Unfortunately screw tourniquets did not stop the pain of the operation and if applied incorrectly caused mortification of the wound. The use of the screw tourniquet caught on relatively quickly among the learned surgeons but those in the outlying colonies or not schooled in a Surgeons College were less likely to know about the tourniquet or had the proper training to apply it correctly. By the time of the French and Indian War (1754) the use of the screw tourniquet was common practice among surgeons. Blood loss was usually not the main cause of death from amputation, shock from the pain was most likely the leading cause of death from the actual amputation. Once again there was a disconnect between some common knowledge of the time and the conventional practice of the surgeon in the 18th century. Opium, a narcotic that lessens pain was well known in the 18th Century. Cocaine, another pain reducing drug was also known in the Caribbean However neither drug was seen as medicinally useful for another 100 years. The drug most commonly used to lessen pain was Strong spirits such as rum or whiskey. It was not effective for several reasons. If the patient survived the injury that led to the need to remove a limb, survived the blood loss from the surgery and did not die from the intense pain of the operation, then he still needed to survive the almost certain infection that would follow the operation. Infection was not only common among amputees it was accepted as part of the healing process by many in the medical professionals of the time. The opinions on this progression of healing would slowly change so that by the 1770s only a very poorly taught surgeon would think infection was a necessary part of healing. Many thanks to Mandarin Lake for placing the original cache.
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