Medical Breakthroughs
The messages in this area focus on little known medical advances that have had a huge impact on our health.
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The Long Goodbye
Alois was born in Bavaria in 1864. His parents were educationally focused, so he was able to receive a good education to become a medical doctor. His areas of interest were psychiatry and neuropathology. When he graduated, he began working with the mentally ill. He...
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Dip-and-Read Strips
Helen (Murray) Free was born in Pittsburgh in 1923. When she was six, her mother died from a flu epidemic. She was inspired by her high school English teacher and hoped to become a teacher of English as well. When World War II began, the drafting of men created an...
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Band-Aids®
Earle Dickson was born in 1893. When he married he was working as a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson. His wife was somewhat of a klutz and was constantly cutting herself as she worked in the kitchen. The bandages at the time were big and hard to apply. Earle...
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The Treatment of Ulcers
Barry Marshall was born in Australia in 1951. He pursued an education in medicine at the University of Western Australia. When he graduated, he led a fellowship at the Royal Perth Hospital. As a practitioner, he was seeing 1-2 patients each day with bleeding ulcers....
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Handicap Aide
In 1914, Bessie Blount was born in Hickory, Virginia. When she started elementary school, her teacher rapped her knuckles for writing left-handed. Bessie had to learn to use her right hand even though her left was her dominant hand. She also taught herself to write...
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The Magic Bullet
We’ve all heard the term Magic Bullet used to refer to a miraculous answer to a problem. Ever wonder where the term came from? The answer is that it came from a man by the name of Paul Ehrlich. Paul was born in 1854 in what is now Poland. As a teenager, he became...
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Battlefield Medical Practices
In 1824 Jonathan Letterman was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania as the son of a surgeon. Perhaps he was destined to have a medical career. When he graduated from medical school, he took a position with the Army as an Assistant Surgeon. During most of his early career...
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Preventing Impact Injuries
Shawn Springs was born in 1975 to parents who were both 18 years old. His father was a star football player while his mother enlisted in the Army. He was raised by his grandmother and aunts while his parents were away. Shawn was also an excellent football player and...
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Plastic Surgery
Harold Gillies was born in 1882 in New Zealand. He attended medical school at Cambridge. When World War I began, he joined the Royal Army Medical College. He was not allowed to operate but worked under the supervision of a dentist. When Dr. Gillies saw the dentist...
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