Which treatments surprised you the most? Can you identify any techniques that have carried over into modern medicine?

We get to see nineteenth-century medical techniques through Nora's eyes. Which treatments surprised you the most? Can you identify any techniques that have carried over into modern medicine?

Lack of any effective type of sedation before surgery (until the use of ether) was certainly the most shocking to me. The description of suturing wounds seems similar to what is done today, except for lack of pain relief.

I agree with Laura C - I was very surprised by the lack of sedation before surgery. This was horrifying. I found the storyline about the characters experimenting with ether as an effective method of sedation really interesting.

The whole discovery of the ether was fascinating! It was kind of ironic that as I was reading this, I was preparing myself for major surgery. Some parts had me freaked out!

As others have mentioned, I found the idea of surgery without anesthesia to be horrifying. The experiments with ether that they did on each other also seemed scary to me, although ether was a huge improvement over the alternative.

The whole intestinal operation that caused all the trouble was fascinating. It’s hard to imagine a time when intense surgery like that was a last ditch effort with only a small expectation of success.

As I read the book, I wondered about how much knowledge the author actually had about medicine at the time and how much was made up. The authors’ notes at the end revealed that there were two authors and they had indeed done their research.

I was aware of the bite the bullet period of surgery so the whole ether thing was not a surprise. What was not mentioned, and it surprised me, was the lack of sterilization of hands and instruments. Nora wipes her bloody hands on her apron during the surgery! I guess suturing and retraction of tissue is the same today as then

The lack of anesthesia and the discovery of ether as an anesthetic was interesting to me. The brutal nature and frequency of amputation was interesting. It was interesting to me that the intestinal surgery that saved John’s life was a last ditch effort and Dr. Vickery was more concerned thar Nora was illegally helping with the surgery than the fact that they saved a man’s life with a new surgery.

I agree with what others have said about the lack of anesthesia prior to surgery was frightening but that was all that they had and at least Nora tried to provide comfort. As mentioned, the lack of sterilization was even more scarier especially because it was the norm. What satisfied but at the same time surprised me was the successful surgeries that Nora performed or assisted even with Dr. Vickery disapproval but proved her knowledge and talents in medicine.

The lack of sedation and fearing cutting into the abdomen surprised me the most.

I was intrigued by the autopsies they did and how they had to obtain cadavers to Learn. Today the Autopsies are probably similar but with newer technologies and techniques but the means of obtaining cadavers is now on a donation system. I also was intrigued by Nora’s sketches Now days most things are probably done digitally to recreated body organs for text or plastic models. I bet the sketches and wax representations like the ones done by the real Anna Miranda Manzolini did for the University in Bologna were beautiful and real works of art in their own way!

Agree about the lack of sedation. Unbelievable. So glad that doctors finally perfected sedation. Can't imagine a surgery without proper sedation.

There are a number of treatments that would be surprising to people who had not studied history. The lack of antiseptics and ways to sedate for surgery were several of the things that show how far medicine and science have come. It is unbelievable to think about surgery or disease without anesthesia or sterilization. I think the book showed a thorough research of that time and presented well-if hard to read.