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April 9, 2007
Anaesthetics and Medical Science's Advance
I've been listening tonight to a harrowing BBC program on the importance of anaesthetics' advances to modern surgery's progress. Absolutely riveting.The suffering experienced by patients in the age before anaesthetics is almost unimaginable. In the 19th Century, a simple fracture often led to amputation carried out on a conscious patient, whose senses would be dulled only by brandy or perhaps some morphine. Many patients died of shock. The properties of gases like nitrous oxide or “laughing gas” held out hope. But it wasn't until the 1840s that there was a major breakthrough in anaesthetics, when an enterprising dentist in Boston managed to anaesthetize a patient with ether. Ether had its drawbacks and the search for a suitable alternative continued until chloroform was tried in 1847, winning many admirers.
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and that's why anesthesiologists make so much money. they're the next step down below surgeons (i'm pretty sure).
And chloroform was first used in a building in Edinburgh, not far from where I live. May be it is time I start paying more attention to the living history in my city..