Did World War One play a key role in the discoveries in the medical field today? By 1916 Harrold Gillies had set up his first plastic surgery unit to help the victims in the war. His techniques were discovered through trial and error. He was able to discover the tube pedicle-skin grafting, a technique we still use today in main surgeries to attach skin to different areas of the body without cutting off the circulation. Through these surgeries we were able to discover new ways to deliver anesthesia, while learning how to train the doctors. We still use these techniques today in the medical field. We deliver anesthesia in similar ways, and have found new chemicals to use for it. If it weren’t for these discoveries, many of the soldiers in the war that had drastic injuries from the damage, would not have been discharged as earlier in the time, let alone survive their injuries. It even went as far as establishing specialist centres for the soldiers on the fields.

If we didn’t have this war, would we have been able to make these discoveries on our own? The tube pedicle-skin graft was being studied in India but wasn’t perfect, let alone able to save the amount of lives it did if it weren’t for Harold Gillies and the war. Who knows if we would still be using it today, but because of his trial and error we were able to perfect the surgery and deliver the anesthesia the way we are now. We realized that we need more than one doctor for the body, and that they need to be able to specialize in different areas of health. One thing we can say though, is that through this war, it had made a big impact in the medical field and people’s lives.