Many discoveries and achievements have been made in medicine, however, conquering pain must be one of the very few that has potentially affected every human being in the world. It was in 1846 that a young Boston Dentist, Dr. William T.G. Morton eliminated the pain of surgery. Dr. Morton used ether, a gas that when used properly provides safe and effective anesthesia. An anesthetic is a substance used to deaden pain or produce a state of anesthesia. Its impact on the future has been shown through the social sciences of culture, sociology, and psychology. The development of anesthetics started as early as 1298 and is still being improved and studied today, doctors like Morton have made a very positive impact on medicine.
Early Anesthetic methods
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were very different and not effective compared to the methods we use today. Elective surgery was performed very infrequently prior to Morton’s discovery. From 1812-1846 there was less than one operation each month, surgery was a last and desperate resort. Over the centuries, numerous techniques have been used to dull sensation for surgery. Methods were different in every culture. In some, knocking a patient unconscious with a low blow to the jaw was effective. Early Chinese practitioners used acupuncture. Ancient Hindu civilizations used henbane, hemp and wine. Alcoholic beverages such as wine and brandy have been used to induce numbness for centuries. Opium, which comes from the poppy plant, also has a long history of use in human cultures. The ancient Roman practice was to bleed patients until they were unconscious and was used until around 1800. The modern forms of anesthetics were created based on the ideas of these ancient cultures. The modern era of anesthesia began in the late eighteenth century when chemists began to investigate the use of various gases. Some doctors and chemists that stand out the most for their contributions include, Joseph Priestly who discovered nitrous oxide in 1772. Humphry Davy, credited for the discovery in 1800 that gas has anesthetic properties when it is inhaled. In 1818 Davy’s student Michael Faraday determined that ether has the effect of anesthesia on the body, which will be used be Morton roughly 30 years later. The anesthetic properties of ether and nitrous oxide were quickly used by several American doctors and dentists. Dr. Morton is the most credited for the use of the anesthetic ether because he arranged the first public demonstration of surgery. William Thomas Green Morton was born on August 9, 1819 and passed away on July 15, 1868.
Morton was born in Charlton, Massachusetts, he was the son of a farmer. Morton found work as a clerk, printer and salesman in Boston before entering Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1840. In 1843 Morton married Elizabeth Whitman whose family inspired Morton to go to Medical school. Morton left Baltimore without graduating and entered Harvard Medical School where he went to chemistry lectures that introduced him to the anesthetic properties of ether. On October 16, 1846 William Morton arrived in the operating theatre of the Massachusetts General Hospital to administer ether for an operation by Dr. John Collins Warren to remove a tumor from Gilbert Abbot’s jaw. For about 3 minutes Abbot breathed ether vapor from Morton’s simple apparatus. Abbot did not experience any pain but knew the procedure was happening. Morton pulled off the first successful public demonstration of anesthesia. After the surgery, Morton went on to patent the gas ether for use around the …show more content…
world. Today there the two most common forms of anesthetics are local and general. Local anesthetics block nerve transmission to pain centers in the central nervous system by binding to and inhibiting the function of an ion channel in the cell membrane of nerve cells known as the sodium channel. The other form, general anesthetics induces a general insensibility to pain. The patient loses awareness yet their vital physiological functions such as breathing and blood pressure continue to function. Most commonly, general anesthetics are administered by breathing a gas. Their primary site of action is the central nervous system where they inhibit nerve transmission by a mechanism distinct from that of a local anesthetic. The general anesthetics cause a reduction in nerve transmission at synapses, the sites at which neurotransmitters are released. Today’s anesthetist is a highly trained specialist who administers several anesthetics at the same time and uses sophisticated equipment to monitor a patient’s blood pressure, rate of respiration, heartbeat and blood levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide and anesthetic vapors. Anesthetics have made a positive impact on medicine; we can see this through the social science of culture, sociology and psychology.
Anesthetics contributed to culture because it is an intellectual achievement. It took different cultures around 550 years to administer a safe and effective anesthesia for surgery. Today we are still making progress in anesthesia, in fact, there is a concern right now that anesthesia gases are contributing to global warming and scientist are quickly looking for new methods to lessen the use of green house gases like this one. Anesthetics have impacted sociology greatly because human society can function without the fear of pain in surgery. Surgery now takes place with less fear than in the past. Surgery often meant death before the 1800s and was a very painful experience. Today our health care system is very developed and continuing to be altered to provide the best experience and health outcomes for society. The fear of pain in surgery relates to psychology, although the pain of surgery has been eliminated, many older people experience chronic pain and physiologists help people cope with
this. In conclusion, our lives have been greatly impacted by the development of anesthetics. With improved anesthetics, surgeries have been pushed to new heights which would have never been possible without doctors like William Morton and many others. Anesthetics will continue to improve. The future of anesthetics will be towards the development of drugs and routes of administration with faster and predictable effects with easy reversibility of action and less side effects.
Brody, Michael, and Donald Martin. “The Role of Anesthesiologists.” Physicians Protecting Patients. N.p. N.d. Web. October 21, 2015. An anesthesiologist is a physician who has received at least 8 years of schooling and has completed a residency program dealing with anesthesiology. Now, a licensed physician, an anesthesiologist deals with the administration of anesthesia during many medical procedures, including surgical or obstetric procedures, and pain management for acute and chronic illnesses, or cancer related pain. Anesthesiologists are also in charge of “anesthesia care teams” that include the anesthesiologist, an anesthesia assistant, certified registered nurse anesthetist, and an anesthesia technician. As the leader of the care team, the anesthesiologist is responsible for assessing the patient before, during, and after medical procedures, as well as developing and monitoring performance and quality of practices and standards in regards to administering anesthesia. The entirety of
William Harvey one of the first founding fathers of modern medicine to correctly state how blood circulated the body through the dissection of animals. Born in Folkstone, England April 1, 1578 he was the oldest son out of ten brothers born to a very wealthy family. His father Thomas was a successful businessman turned Mayor and his mother Joane a housewife. Harvey earned is education at a small elementary school moving along to the King’s Grammar School. William at the age of 15, in 1593 enrolled himself in the University of Cambridge as a medical student on a six year full ride scholarship. He attended Cambridge till the age of 21 where he enrolled in the University of Padua where
The ideas, decisions and actions we make today shape our tomorrow. The same can be said for our past. Globally, our history has molded the development of the political, economical and philosophical system we have today. One of the biggest influences of history comes from Ancient Greece, and a man by the name of Hippocrates. Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician and philosopher, practiced and taught medicine to his students. His philosophies and practices influenced the development of Western modern medicine.
The contributions of several doctors, researchers, and scientists helped improve the health of the growing population. In 1850 the average life expectancy was 42 years. By 1910 the average life expectancy had risen to nearly 55 years. Between 1850 and 1910 there were several advances in the medical field. The introduction of genes, white blood cells, blood groups, insulin, rubber gloves, aspirin, and vitamins and the discoveries of Pasteur, Charcot, Halsted, Zirm, Lister, and Koch were the starting point of an international fight against disease.
According to Career Cruising, “anesthesiologists are doctors who administer drugs or gases that prevent patients from feeling any pain or sensation during surgery.” They monitor the patient before, during, and after the operation. Career Cruising also noted that before surgery, anesthesiologists consult with patients and make decisions
Many pivotal events over the last century have brought our healthcare system to where it is today. Some were indirect, such as World War II (and how it led to direct events such as medical advances that shifted focus from critical care and managing contagion to preventive medicine and health insurance as an employee benefit) and the internet (which has provided a wealth of tools and resources that were once only available to healthcare providers and has served to foster technological advancements such as Electronic Health Records and telemedicine). Others were targeted interventions, such as the Hill-Burton Act, which was enacted in 1946 and provided infrastructure dollars to healthcare facilities that agreed to provide a significant volume of free or reduced cost services to those with limited ability to pay (HRSA, 2014). Perhaps the most influential targeted event was the passage of Medicare and Medicaid programs, which was the point at which the government became the administrator for insurance programs for the poor, creating a system that would continuously grow and impact service delivery through regulatory control.
Thatcher, V.S. (1953) History of Anesthesia, With Emphasis on the Nurse Specialist. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.
One of the fastest growing fields in America is that of the physician assistant profession. Physician assistants are medical professionals who provide diagnostic and preventative health care services under the supervision of doctors. Forbes magazine recently listed physician assistants as the fourth fastest growing profession in the United States. Although the profession is currently getting a wealth of attention, the idea of physician assistants has been around for centuries. More recently due to the shortage of physicians, there has been an increased need for physician assistants. We find it important to explore and understand the history of the profession and how it has evolved in order to understand the future direction of the profession.
Rockwell, P.E.,M.D. Director of Anesthesiology, Leonard Hospital, Troy, NY, U.S. Supreme Court, Markle vs. Abele, 72-56, 72-730, 1972. P.11
In the early 1800’s, before the use of anesthesia, many patients with life threatening issues would forgo surgery and choose the permanent path of death rather than undergo a painful, emotionally scarring procedure such as surgery before anesthesia. When surgeries did take place, they would be performed on the top floors of hospitals so that the other patients couldn’t hear the screams. More than 8,000 anesthesia-free operations were performed in the Ether Dome at Mass General Hospital, coincidentally the birthplace of the first surgery “without pain” (Mass General).
There were no real monumental changes in surgery techniques for the first half of the nineteenth century. In fact, before 1846, the only change in surgical practices was that the newer surgeons had a greater knowledge of anatomy and pathology. Surgery during this half of the century was a horrible experience that was only turned to as a last resort. Many people would choose to commit suicide rather than live through the agony of surgery, and the suffering afterwards. Operations were very brief and were accompanied by great pain. Generally the patient would be held down screaming, while the doctor performed whatever surgery was necessary. At this point in history, surgery would have been very different from what it is today. Rather than the scalpel and surgeons mask, the doctor would use a tool like a hacksaw to cut through the bone in the area being amputated. It was not until the discovery of effective anesthesia that surgery became a relatively common phenomenon. The word Anesthesia is from greek, and means "without sensibility".
Anesthesia is used in almost every single surgery. It is a numbing medicine that numbs the nerves and makes the body go unconscious. You can’t feel anything or move while under the sedative and are often delusional after being taken off of the anesthetic. Believe it or not, about roughly two hundred years ago doctors didn’t use anesthesia during surgery. It was rarely ever practiced. Patients could feel everything and were physically held down while being operated on. 2It wasn’t until 1846 that a dentist first used an anesthetic on a patient going into surgery and the practice spread and became popular (Anesthesia). To this day, advancements are still being made in anesthesiology. 7The more scientists learn about molecules and anesthetic side effects, the better ability to design agents that are more targeted, more effective and safer, with fewer side effects for the patients (Anesthesia). Technological advancements will make it easier to read vital life signs in a person and help better decide the specific dosages a person needs.
Given these points its is easily shown that an anesthesiologist is not only highly educated in medicine and the human body but as well as in the ability to interact with others and deal with with his or her patients emotions and reactions. Anesthesiologists hold a very important position in the medical field. The general public needs anesthesiologist not only during surgeries but in dentistry, birth, and plastic abscission. With modern medicine advancing everyday, who knows in what other fields society we will need them.
James Patrick Anthony McManus was brought up in a small mining village in Scotland. He graduated as dux of his class and went on to medical school at Edinburgh University. He did his internship in Edinburgh and Cambridge. He then served in the Royal Army Medical Corp as part of his National Service in Germany where he met his beautiful wife, Rachel Chenard. Jim went on to do his medical residency in Edinburgh.
When Hemingway was young, his father made him have his tonsils removed by another doctor. The doctor did not use anesthetic while performing the surgery. Hemingway always held it against his dad for having his tonsils taken out, with out an anesthetic (Myers 48). Hemingway portrayed his father as the doctor in Indian Camp. In the story Nick asked his father about giving the Indian woman something to stop her screaming during the caesarian. Nicks father states “No. I haven’t any anesthetic…but her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important” (Tessitore 18).