Pare
Important in Medicine because…
· Ambroise Pare was a lowly Barber-Surgeon in 1510. It was a very low-status job without the respect surgeons receive today.
· After working for a public hospital, he joined the army as a surgeon.
· At the time when limbs were amputated the blood vessels in the stump were cauterised with a hot iron to seal them. This was all extra pain and suffering.
· Pare tackled this with ligatures. These were silk threads, and were used to tie off the blood vessels.
· Pare also developed prosthetic limbs – artificial legs.
· Bullet wounds often were infected, much more so than arrow or sword cuts. This was tackled (guess? Yep, with that hot iron again!!). Sometimes hot oil was poured in. Pare BY CHANCE ran out of oil and tried a cold soothing lotion or salve instead. He noticed these patients did much better.
· He soon rose to be the King of France’s surgeon. It took the backing of royalty for his ideas to be noticed because of his lowly status as a Barber-Surgeon.
See here for an excellent video on Pare |