Medicine in the Revolutionary War

The American soldiers were worn out and malnourished. More men died of disease than on the battlefield. The lack of medical supplies and lack of experienced doctors impacted the amount of deaths. Medicine that was used in the American Revolution was not sterile either. They would amputate limbs with a saw, and drain blood from patients by leaches, or cut a piece of flesh and drain out the amount of blood they found necessary into a bowl. Many soldiers didn’t survive some of the procedures. It wasn’t always the procedure that killed them, it also depended on the skill of the surgeon. Wounds to the head, chest, and stomach were hopeless in these times. Doctors and nurses did what they could to ease the pain, but with supplies being so low, they used alcohol and tobacco to ease the amount of pain. In these days, you could not put someone to sleep to perform surgery, instead they were given drugs to ease the pain, then perform the awake surgery. Many soldiers who stayed at the hospital for a few days died of infection. The lack of ability they had to save lives in those times is upsetting, but it did save some lives.