Practicing “Civil War Medicine” in Haiti
The foreign doctors who performed the first amputations after the earthquake used hacksaws. They relied on vodka for sterilization, substituted local numbing for general anesthesia, jury-rigged tourniquets from rubber gloves. Working around the clock in improvised operating rooms, they sacrificed limbs and lost patients to injuries that are no longer supposed to be disabling or deadly.
Full article on the first amputations performed after the earthquake in Haiti.
I also read that amputation was used in many cases because the lack of resources made it almost impossible to preserve limbs, considering the sheer number of injured patients and the difficulty of the conditions.
Sounds gory.
Also, it’s a bit amazing that modern doctors can practice medicine that way if they have to.