Medical advancements in American history have gone through many significant changes in the twentieth century. These advancements in surgery, medicine, and technology had a dramatic impact on our society that improved and bettered the quality of life.
America's medical history has had many changes and improvements since the beginning of its first medical practices. Early medical practices in America were very unsafe as well as ineffective. Its first hospitals were filthy and rare, mostly in urban cities, so mainly doctors operated in their own home. Before anesthetics, surgery was an extremely difficult task for American physicians. They performed quickly because the pain was so unbearable that most patients went into shock. A patient was lucky if they survived through surgery.
Early medical equipment used in America during the 1700's was hardly ever sterile. Originally, surgeons didn't clean their surgical clothing to prove that they were experienced. The more soaked with blood and filth, the more skilled you were considered. If a patient survived through surgery, they usually died soon after; the loss of blood or an infection would kill them.The development of anesthesia had a great impact on American history. Originally, a Georgia physician named Dr. Crawford W. Long developed the first anesthesia in 1795.He used ether, a laughing gas, during several surgeries, but he never publicized these events. Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a Boston dentist, was the first to demonstrate and publicize anesthesia. Anesthesia made medical practices much easier and less painful; also the amount of shock problems decreased. They allowed U.S. physicians to work more sufficiently. Three types of anesthesia were invented: nitrous oxide, sulfuric ether, and chloroform.
Although anesthetics were very helpful, they also had a down side: people became addicted to them.Doctors and medical students were the main users of anesthesia. Even laughing gas and ether parties were thrown for fun. Some Americans made money by selling anesthetics to common people; some would even pay just to see others using them.
Anesthetics made surgery easier, but keeping the wound clean was still a problem in America. Infections from diseases and germs were common after surgery. Early U.S. hospitals held many diseases and germs due to unsanitary conditions. Wounds were more likely to get infected in a hospital than outside one. "It was no wonder that people saw admission to a hospital as a death. Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur made the first discoveries about germs. They also found some of the first antiseptics, or substances to kill germs. They tried to introduce these discoveries to American physicians but they rejected them. They didn't accept Pasteur's discovery because they didn't believe that germs existed. They found it hard to understand that such tiny organisms could cause illnesses. The development of x-rays also improved society in America. Wilhelm Roentgen, of Germany, was the first to discover x-rays in 1895. He discovered them accidentally by conducting electricity through gases at low pressures.X-rays enabled doctors to see fractures and problems in bone structures, which make their work easier. This invention crossed over to America soon after it was discovered. American physicians greatly accepted this device because it greatly improved the quality of their work.