Medical Changes in the Twentieth Century
             Medical advancements in American history have gone through many significant changes in the twentieth century. These advancements in surgery, medicine, and technology had a dramatic impact on our society that improved and bettered the quality of life.
             America's medical history has had many changes and improvements since the beginning of its first medical practices. Early medical practices in America were very unsafe as well as ineffective. Its first hospitals were filthy and rare, mostly in urban cities, so mainly doctors operated in their own home (Surgery, Galenet). Before anesthetics, surgery was an extremely difficult task for American physicians. They performed quickly because the pain was so unbearable that most patients went into shock (Surgery, Galenet). A patient was lucky if they survived through surgery.
             Early medical equipment used in America during the 1700's was hardly ever sterile. Originally, surgeons didn't clean their surgical clothing to prove that they were experienced (Yount, 10). The more soaked with blood and filth, the more skilled you were considered. If a patient survived through surgery,
             they usually died soon after; the loss of blood or an infection would kill them (Yount, 23).
             The development of anesthesia had a great impact on American history. Originally, a Georgia physician named Dr. Crawford W. Long developed the first anesthesia in 1795 (Anesthesia, Galenet). He used ether, a laughing gas, during several surgeries, but he never publicized these events. Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a Boston dentist, was the first to demonstrate and publicize anesthesia (Anesthesia, Galenet). Anesthesia made medical practices much easier and less painful; also the amount of shock problems decreased. They allowed U.S. physicians to work more sufficiently. Three types of anesthesia were invented: nitrous oxide, sulfuric ether, a...