Word: spinal
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...worst wounds is a severed spinal cord. If it does not kill him, it paralyzes a man below the injury, makes him helpless as a baby. World War II left the U.S. with some 2,000 such men. Doctors call them paraplegics; but they have less euphemistic names for themselves. At one time or another, nearly every paraplegic wishes he were dead...
...hard for many of them to believe that they can probably regain independence, of a sort. But Boston's Surgeon Donald Munro, who has seen it happen, is sure that they can. Says he: "If he is properly treated, every patient with a spinal cord injury who is intelligent and cooperative and has the use of the shoulder, arm and hand muscles can be made ambulatory . . . lead a normal social life and . . . earn a satisfactory living...
...round heads; 2) the only predominantly long-headed groups in the world today are savages in Australia and Africa; 3) civilized men of all races are becoming more & more roundheaded, probably as a result of rising from all fours to an erect posture, which changes the form of the spinal column and of the skull base. The trend toward a broader and shorter skull, says Dr. Weidenreich, has not reduced modern man's brain; it remains about the same size as that of the Neanderthal man. According to the latest theory, brainpower depends not on shape or size...
Proudest of the Army Surgeon General's exhibits is the spinal ward, Ward 108, at Newton D. Baker General Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va. Of 69 men there, 43 are "walking patients" (they proudly sign themselves W.P.). Most walk with the aid of braces, crutches or canes, but 14 of them, whose spinal cords are only partly severed, walk with no help...
Treatment of a spinal patient begins with absolute rest for the back, usually in a plaster cast. Because the paralyzed legs are completely numb, patients commonly develop bed sores. The Newton D. Baker Hospital developed a quick cure: skin grafts. No less troublesome is the problem of getting patients to eat; the spinal injury destroys their appetite. The hospital spurs them on by serving especially tasty and attractive food...