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Injuries on the Western Front - Coggle Diagram
Injuries on the Western Front
Trench foot
Could cause gangrene
Effected feet would have to be amputated
Feet turned blue
Standing in waterlogged trenches for prolonged periods of time
Solutions
Soldiers were expected to change socks 3 times a day
Kept feet dry
Covering feet with wale oil once a day
Less of a problem after 1915
Lice
Nicknamed "chats"
Lived in seams of clothes and bedding
Trenches were ideal parasite breeding conditions
Spread easily
Spread Pyrexia
Commonly known as "Trench Fever"
Headaches
Rashes
Leg pain
Swollen eyes
Symptoms could last a week
Soldiers could be hospitalised for up to a month
Not life threatening
Connection to lice proven in 1918
Solutions
Clothing disinfected when soldiers left front line
Soldiers had to visit bath houses to wash in hot water
Enemy firepower
Artillery shells
Ripped limbs from bodies
Fatal wounds
Disfigured faces
Rifles
Fatal wounds
Smashed bones
Damaged organs
Machine guns
Fatal wounds
Smashed bones
Damaged organs
Difficulties for surgeons
Shrapnel
Soldiers began to wear steel helmets in 1915
Over 60,000 still received head injuries in 1915
Shock, blood loss and infection after the initial blow could be fatal
Sellshock
An acute stress disorder
Psychological trauma to men who had been exposed to war for too long
Panic attacks
Inability to talk, sleep or control their bodies
Unsanitary conditions
Manure
Battle-fields were fertilised
Contaminated wounds
Carried bacteria that caused gas gangrene
Lead to amputation
Solutions
Cut away infected tissue
Soaked wounds in iodine
Poisonous gas
First used by Germans
Chlorine
Suffocated soldiers
Mustard
Severely burned eyes, throat and skin
Phosgene
Solution
Gas Masks protected soldiers from gas attacks
Doctors administered oxygen
Over 5% of British soldiers died of gas attacks