This Victorian Invention Saved Thousands In WW1  

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"Doc, what are my odds?" "80%" "Of?" "We'll see"

Really nice of him to travel forward in time to explain this to us.

One of the reasons that a femur fracture can be fatal is that the femoral artery is the main blood supply to the lower body. If you break the femur, it is likely to leave a sharp edge of bone, which in turn can easily slice into your femoral artery and you will bleed out in no time. That's just one reason. 😊

Ive broken my femur before, and it contracted like explained. Before the EMT's could get me out of the house, they put me on a stretcher, closed the door, tied me down, and pulled it back into place with a similar but modern version. Not too many pains quite like that one. but I survived.

finally, a victorian invention that doesn't try and kill you

You know WW1 was hell when the life-saving equipment sounds like torture.

Traction splinting was an absolutely phenomenal medical innovation. Really cool to see early iterations of a traction splint!

Interesting fact about statistics. When tin hats were introduced by the British army in WW1 the number of head injuries recorded by field hospitals rocketed and some officers who had sneered at the idea of helmets seized on this as a sign of how useless they were. It did not take long, however, for it to be realised that most of these casualties would have previously been in the KIA ledger rather than wounded.

Shout out to the cameraman traveling back in 1914 to record this

"you have an 80% chance of dying" The music: 🎷🎷💃🕺

Traction splints actually drastically reduce pain. From like a 25/10 to a 11/10

It also TREMENDOUSLY reduces pain bc of less bone grinding. Traction splints are amazing.

The first seconds when seeing this vid, I thought it was a giant saw that was meant to amputate limbs with broken bones

I've never imagined your leg muscles pulling your bones further beyond the initial break. Horrifying.

Honestly nothing more attractive to me than a well spoken well mannered handsome man on this earth

We need to bring back dressing like this guy

I’m an EMT and I use the modern version of this all the time. Honestly it hasn’t changed much

What a fine distinguished gentleman

Dude's dressed like he's about to announce that tomorrow we go "over the top"

"What are my chances doc?" "I don't know, have we invented bent metal bars yet?"

It's called a Thomas Splint and is widely in use in emergency situations even today. An amazing invention.

the guy who's 4'11: 🗿

That is probably one of the single most painful procedures a human being can endure without going into shock

I actually used these, 45 years ago. You've got it backward, the padded piece goes behind the leg, a cravat secures it over the front, another cravat for an ankle hitch, and a third cravat around the bottom with a windlass inserted to create the traction - a few more cravats between the top and bottom to add support to the leg.

I imagine his mustache smells of cigars, whiskey and chutney.

How men dress :🧍‍♂️ How men want to dress:

So I watched a series about all the Victorian home items that were deadly, but I'd love to see the things like this that actually saved folks.

A broken femur would quite possibly be the most terrifying break. For me anyway

That mustache is a fantastic piece of kit.

He got that leader’s aura.

Something so simple and yet its saved so many lives, what a work of genius

Bro really changed the statistics to 100% survival compared to previous one 💀

EMT here, we still use traction splints like this to this day. Femur fractures come with a lot of complications, but this technology as well as many others that came out of WW1 (which actually ended up being one of the major basis for emergency healthcare) were revolutionary. Awesome to see the history here!

Sir, I just wanted to let you know your mustache game is ON POINT. Have a great day.

It's impossible not to smile while watching your videos.

simple yet effective.

What a distinguished gentleman

I broke my femur and was put in a modern version of this. The crazy thing is that once you are secure in it the pain almost completely goes away. It's wild, one second you're in the most excruciating pain you've ever been in, the next It's nothing Edit: got a few comments about the pain going away because of medication. When I was put in the brace I was on a snowy mountain minutes after a skiing accident. I didn't receive any medication till I got to the hospital a while later. The ride down the mountain and road bumps in the ambulance hurt quite a bit, but when everything was still I felt very little to no pain.

Still sounds the most painful experience ever.

It’s a Thomas leg splint. I taught army medics how to use it.

A dapper gentleman explaining a fantastic medical innovation. Makes my day brighter.

we have to protect this man from these thirst comments

That seems incredibly painful

Broke my femur in a car accident 21 years ago. Leg has never been 100% again.

I can't even imagine how phenomenally painful breaking and resetting your femur is. Especially with that type of treatment.

Note to Vocabulary: remove "stuff" add "piece of kit"

Cant believe it took that long for them to figure out how to save a broken leg from killing u

Medical innovations that are just a bunch of lines in a perfect array are truly a marvel

Traction splint. I am an army flight medic and I was able to use this on a kid who had a midshaft femur fracture as result of a mountain biking incident. Kid went form a 7/10 pain to 1-2/10 pain just from the splint despite the vibrations of the helicopter. Such a fascinating intervention.

soldier: "i have a small fracture in my leg" 19th century doctor: "amputation, it is."

What is kind of ironic is that even though wars are very destructive some of our advances in medicine come through innovation in combat situations.

Breaking your femur would arguably one of the most painful things to happen to your body in your entire lifetime

"That's why I lost my medical license"

I’m glad British Tom Cruise was here to explain this fine piece of kit

His moustache alone dates back to the Boer War.

It's amazing that the simplest of remedies can increase the likelihood of survival by so much.

As an EMT, we use a leg splint of a similar design even to this day

what amazes me more is his visual looks. The moustache, hair, uniform, and his face in general. He looks like he's been taken out of a certain time 100 years ago by a time traveler.

And it’s so painful you’ll have nightmares about it for the rest of your life.

Sounds excruciatingly painful.

the 20% chance of dying: "I still exist you know."

This Englishman is the kind I like

I had this done on my hand, wrist and arm, 2 years ago. Crazy painful!!!!!!!!

He's so adorably excited about this, makes me excited too.

I was a firefighter/emt, so I knew it wasn’t a good sign when pulling traction on my leg resulted in pain relief. That is also a symptom of a femur fracture. Fortunately, it wasn’t that in my case, but the contusion was quite painful still.

they took femur breaker to another level

I believe this is called a "Thomas Splint". Occasionally, still use variants of it in veterinary medicine. But only by those that have been around for a few decades.

It's so interesting, because when I broke my femur, they used a similar device

Shit I thought he was gonna go: “This is a bone saw”

As a firefighter, EMT-A used it many times. It's amazing how a person who is in agonizing pain with this break will go from pain to no pain in minutes.

The 20% guy seeing his reward of life turning into a death: ☠️

These have been updated and are still used today to stabilize femur breaks in the field and in the hospital, so cool to see its older versions!

"What happens when you broke your femur?" "You hear the old man"

You, dear sir, have the most wonderful voice and I love with how much passion you told us about this equipment. ❤️

Imagine living back then and breaking your bones...

The definition of a British gentleman.

Ambulances still carry the same basic tool today, though with a few improvements. They're made of modern materials, have a pulley to help pull the leg, and are designed to collapse into a little bag for storage; it's called a traction splint.

Finally, we can reuse D-class to contain scp-106.

They use these in WWVI Fantastic piece of kit to last the generations

“You now have a 20% chance of dying.” Then the next volley hits

Bro is historically accurate

I had no idea that this fracture can be done fatal.

A 7.62 in ur femur has gotta be absolutely mind numbingly painful dude lol

I met this guy at a reenactment. What a cool guy too.

That Moustache deserves 2 Oscars.

I fractured my tibia a couple months ago as part of a complicated high AND low ankle sprain 😅 Happened at the end of September and I’m STILL recovering and it’s freaking insane how a small crack can affect so much even when it’s not deadly lol

Thomas splint ,saved many still saving many!

This man definitely has "take your pants off, but keep talking" energy.

That’s the most dapper man I’ve ever seen

"Doc... how long do i have..." "10" "Hours? Days? Weeks?" "9..." "Oh..."

Imagine the pain. You would pass out probably..

I really liked this and in particular liked the gentleman in the WW1 get up. Even the moustache. Very authentic

I keep forgetting to add “piece of kit” to my repertoire

He is so charismatic while explaining this, i can’t look at him. 🙈

The outfit, the view, the accent, the voice, feels like back ol' days

This specific dialect of British accent just sounds so nice.

Humans really are the ultimate animal, the way we can manipulate things is just so great

With a mustache and accent like that. I’d believe anything he says.

the outfit, the mustache, the accent, the kind warming attitude, you Sir, are an absolute win ✨