One hundred years on: Ypres and ATLS

"Hemorrhage, hemorrhage, hemorrhage—blood everywhere—clothes soaked in the blood, pools of blood in the stretchers, streams of blood dropping from the stretchers to the floor" Robertson OH, unpublished WWI diaries.1

In the sombre predawn darkness at 03:50 hours on the morning of 31July 1917; British, French and Belgian Forces advanced along the ridges and fields of the Gheluvelt plateau. So began the Third Battle of Ypres. Their objective was a small village called Passchendaele only 13 km away. However, it would take 3 months and over half a million casualties to get there.

Two medical officers; both called Robertson, one Canadian and one American, were part of this offensive. The Canadian was Major Lawrence Bruce Robertson, a surgeon who used uncrossmatched whole blood transfused by syringe directly from donor to recipient to demonstrate the life-saving potential of blood transfusion and the need to resuscitate the badly injured with 'something more than...

from # All Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2xK5x3E
via IFTTT