Civil War Leg Amputation

In an amputation a person has an arm or leg or sometimes just a hand or foot removed from their body because of a terrible injury or infection.

Civil war leg amputation. Its estimated that up to three quarters of all Civil War battlefield surgeries were amputations. Recognizing the alarming number of amputations resulting from combat the US. This left surgeons no choice but to amputate shattered limbs.

Physical wounds amputation phantom limb sensation and pain. Most expected often because of advertisements of the prosthetic limb industry that they would be able to strap into their new leg and walk as normally as they did before the injury. Hidden Wounds of the Civil War.

3 5 Because of this fact early amputation became the recommended treatment in the Civil War. Its often assumed that amputations were performed so often because surgeons at the time were unskilled and simply resorted to procedures bordering on butchery. Of all the enduring myths of the Civil War the image of surgeons as drunken butchers sawing off the arms and legs of soldiers out of ignorance or callousness prevails today.

Thousands of scenes photographed 1861-65 with text by many special authorities. Handbook of Operative Surgery 1863. He was captured by Confederate soldiers and did not receive treatment for his injuries until he was freed by Union forces over a week later.

Flap and Circular Amputations were performed to amputate large limbs during the war. Civil War muskets fired a bullet called a Minnie ball. These musket balls caused massive injuries when they struck a target because the bullet often flattened on impact.

One of the first soldiers to undergo an amputation during the Civil War was Private James Hanger of Churchville Virginia who lost his leg during the Battle of Philippi on June 3 1861. Resistance to this was. A commonly cited number of amputations during the Civil War is roughly 60000 and.