Edythe Dean

For the first time, battlefield fatalities outnumbered deaths by battlefield disease, also advances in protheses were better. Gunshot wounds were the major problem and were washed out with antiseptic solutions (Carrel-Dakin method). Since hygiene had been found to be the main problem in wounds, the Carrel-Dakin method excised any dead tissue and contaminated tissue except nerves and blood vessels. Coal tar dyes or acriflavines, which was a topical antiseptic, were applied. Then the wound was left open to drain. But this caused problems as personnel were required to supervise drainage so quite often gangrene gas would develop making further incisions necessary. So Sir Almroth Wright suggested that wounds be packed with gauze soaked in salt. Then the wound was left alone for 10 days and not dressed. This enabled the wounded to rest and required less personnel. The difficulty was that the wound was not seen for a period of time and this did not prevent anaerobic infection.
Gaudier demonstrated the possibility of cleansing wounds thoroughly and then closing them immediately and this did help as 80 percent recovered without disabilities.
Lice were constantly present and the close proximity of soldiers in trenches helped to spread them quickly. The soldiers in my book were deloused every so often. So when Herbert Sahie of Van Wert enlisted in the army, he was assigned to the Medical Department and later to Training School for the Sanitary Train which took the delousing and bathing more directly to the soldiers by way of a mobile unit.
Lice could cause Trench Fever which could result in death and typhus spread by lice caused an epidemic in Serbia in 1915.
Trench foot became another problem as water-filled trenches caused the feet to become soaked even through boots and if not treated led to gangrene and amputation so the men were required to change socks as often as possible.
Shell shock (now called post-traumatic stress disorder)  also became a problem. Incoming shells and constant barrages and gas deployment harmed the men psychologically and resulted in violent shakes, blank stares or even blindness or paralysis. Rest, good food, a warm shower, and acceptance of the symptoms went a long way in helping, but many suffered for years.
Spanish flu (influenza) caused great distress. The flu began in a Army Training station in Kansas in 1917 and was carried to Europe by U.S. soldiers where it mutated and combined with pneumonia. Peter Bendele, of Ottoville, William Guthrie of Lima (born in Delphos) and Alfred Schramm of Delphos died of broncho pneumonia. So however they contracted it; wet trenches and disease did not help.
Remember, Katherine Stinson contracted it while driving ambulance (20 to 40 million died in this flu epidemic in 1919 of which 675,000 were Americans).
Triage, the method of sorting wounded according to seriousness, was developed. Survival depended on treating the wounded promptly. Getting treatment when wounded on the battlefield could be a problem. They would be taken as soon as possible to a casuality clearing station and from there, perhaps be transported further back by horse-drawn ambulances. Motor vehicles and trains were used when possible later in the war. In the casuality clearing station, major operations were sometimes performed, but tragically sometimes even if they survived, the soldiers died of infection.
Eventually, they would be transported to large base hospitals, and as the war continued, more facilities were used in France as it was risky to send them back to the States, as they would be transported by ship, and the Germans sank many ships transporting men back.
My uncle was in a Canadian General Hospital in France from early November to April 1919 when he was sent home and hospitalized in Camp Sherman in Chillicothe until August 1919, when he was finally sent to Georgia  for another operation. In 1920 he was discharged and went home to bury his grandfather and then went to Washington, D.C., to visit my mother, who was working there. His wound broke open again and my mother got him admitted to Walter Reed Hospital where she could keep an eye on him
Treatment for gas poisoning included rest as any movement seemed to cause the gas to travel in the bloodstream, use of oxygen, protection from the cold, and also vensection, which was bloodletting. This seemed to help if the patient had not collapsed. Mustard gas, which caused blisters, was often treated with cleansing the blisters with various topical solutions
Men who were gassed suffered long after coming home as gas scarred the lungs and esophagus. Hillary Will lost his life sooner than necessary because he was gassed when he encountered gas at Ypres-Lys and Meusse-Argonne. James Morris, Earl Morris’ father, suffered grievously long after returning home.
Serving in Medical Detachments were: Abraham Says of Delphos, who served in the Field Artillery in Europe ; Ralph Rothacher of Van Wert who served in General Hospital 9 in the U.S.; John Adrian of Ft Jennings who served in an ambulance company at Camp Sherman, Georgia; Andy Brickner of Delphos who served in the Medical Corps Hospitals in Europe; and William Lawhead of Van Wert who was assistant surgeon in the Navy.
While medicine advanced greatly in the Great War, improving on the Civil War which had more men dying of food poisoning and dehydration, it still had a long way to go.

Edythe Dean is a Fort Jennings resident and is a member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Delphos. She is a substitute teacher and authored “Over the Top and Back: They Answered Their Country’s Call,”  a chronicle of the men from her hometown in Portage County who went off to serve in World War I.