A lot of
people, especially ones with a bit of a macabre turn of mind, have heard of Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum. It’s a medical museum, filled with
skeletons, body parts in jars, and engravings of surgeries. But collection was
not meant to be some sensationalist tourist stop; Mutter’s collection was for
teaching medical students by showing them what diseases looked like in the body
so they could recognize it. He felt it was vital that specimens like these be
available.
Dr. Thomas Dent
Mutter was an amazing man. He became a doctor while young (there wasn’t as much
schooling required in that era to become a doctor), studying in France where surgical techniques were far
advanced from those in the US. He not only became a remarkable
surgeon- he was ambidextrous- but he brought to America the practice of
actually washing his hands and tools in between patients and was an early
adopter of the use of anesthesia for operations. He performed a lot of
reconstructive surgeries on victims of fires and accidents. He convinced the
medical college to purchase some rooms that could be used for patient recovery-
previously patients were put out in a cart and taken home as soon as the
surgery was over. He thought of patients as actual people instead of just the
operation performed on them. He instituted a lot of things we take for granted
in hospitals today. Sadly, he died young.
The author has
consulted many primary sources for this biography. Descriptions of the
surgeries Mutter performed are taken from his own writings. It’s not just a
biography of Mutter, but in many ways a biography of surgical practices in America. Very interesting and a fast read.
The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something, Amazon will give me a few cents. This in no way affected my review.
No comments:
Post a Comment