Harold Gillies: The Face of a Hero
Historical Context
Footage from WWI, January 1916
Source: bds2014 YouTube
"The First World War was a challenge to most surgeons. The introduction of more destructive weapons resulted in devastating injuries. In addition, in trench warfare the head was more exposed than the rest of the body, and soldiers’ faces were often shattered or burnt beyond recognition. Despite the best efforts of surgeons, many soldiers were left hideously disfigured. A new type of surgery was needed. Realising this need, a young surgeon operating out of Aldershot hospital, England, began performing operations which involved rebuilding the face by taking tissue from other parts of the body. This surgeon was Harold Delf Gillies; a New Zealander considered by many to be the father of plastic surgery." ~ CJ Williams, NZEDGE
Warfare Tactics
Soldiers wearing gas masks and aiming a machine gun,
Courtesy of the National War Museum
Soldiers loading a 155mm Howitzer near Meuse, France, October 10, 1918, used to fire shrapnel shells,
Courtesy of The National WW1 Museum and Memorial
'The floodgates in my neck seemed to burst, and the blood poured out in torrents... I could feel something lying loosely in my left cheek, as though I had a chicken bone in my mouth. It was in reality half my jaw, which had been broken off, teeth and all, and was floating about in my mouth.'
~ John Glubb, hit by a shell fragment in August 1917, courtesy of the National Army Museum
Injuries received from mustard gas and chemical warfare, 1915
Courtesy of Cove Editions
Mustard gas caused blisters on the skin, eyes, and lungs. It is estimated that out of the 180, 100 British chemical casualties, 120,000 are due to mustard gas. Coming in contact with this chemical, although it was originally designed to disable and not kill, will create a greater chance of fatal diseases in the future.
French soldiers making a gas and flame attack on German trenches in Flanders, Belgium, in 1918.
Coutesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
"Before World War I Plastic Surgery was scarcely practiced as a speciality. Cases were indeed treated and have been so since the earliest times of Vedic India. Mostly the work was undertaken by whatever surgeon or specialist received the case, although there were a few outstanding exceptions. But it needed the impetus of the face mutilations of the Battle of the Somme, 2,000 in ten days, the advantages of team work, of improved asepsis, and above all of general anaesthesia, to establish the beginnings of a separate speciality treating all kinds of superficial mutilations or defects of any part of the body."
~ Harold Gillies
Field Hospitals
Aid station, 315th Infantry, 79th Division, Bois de Consenvoye, France, November 8, 1918,
Source: KU Medical Center
"A timely evacuation was a challenge due to the weather, terrain, enemy fire, how to move the patient and the patient's condition. Weather and terrain were variables that could not be controlled. The threat from enemy fire could be mitigated by a night evacuation.
The means of evacuation, by stretcher bearers, wheeled stretcher cart or ambulance and preparing the patient for movement were variables that the station's staff focused on. The physician directed treatment was designed to stabilize the man and prepare him for his next level of care at the division dressing station or field hospital if it was near. At the same time the stabilizing treatment was given the staff coordinated his evacuation with the personnel of the next level of care: the ambulance company and its dressing station."
~ KU Medical Center
An operating room on the battlefield where the surgeon is performing a wound debridement in efforts to clean it before treatment,
Source: Injuries in World War I, World War I Centennial
The administration of a hot drink to aid a shock case,
Source: KU Medical Center