SZ/OEMU/59/39 - [Casualty survey. Crush syndrome, 1943-1945]

SZ/OEMU/59/39

File

[Casualty survey. Crush syndrome, 1943-1945]

1943-1945

52 items Mixed

Crush syndrome

Contains correspondence mainly between Dr J. Douglas and Dr E. Bywaters regarding their surveys on casualties to establish the incidence and symptoms of crush syndrome. Their surveys covered a number of hospitals, in particular South London Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital, although they also surveyed casualties after raids in Ashford and Brighton. Papers of both Bywaters and Douglas are included.

Crush syndrome is a condition occurring among casualties who have been buried or trapped by debris for several hours or more and which is characterised by symptoms of kidney damage. It had first been observed in World War I and reported in German medical literature but was rediscovered in World War II by Dr Bywaters and his team. A full description of the condition and its treatment can be found in Medical Research, edited by F.H.K. Green and Sir Gordon Covell, HMSO, 1953.

The surveys by Bywaters and Douglas involved a number of hospitals, particularly the South London and Hammersmith Hospitals, and extended to casualties from raids on Chelmsford, Ashford and Brighton as well as the London area. The papers are: Report to Medical Research Council on visit made to Chelmsford & Brighton and Confidential report to the Medical Research Council Committee on Shock on the visit of the team to Ashford, Kent, 24th March 1943, 2.4.43, both of which were written by Bywaters; and ‘The incidence of signs of renal injury following prolonged burial under debris in an unselected series of 764 air-raid casualties admitted to hospital’, British Journal of Urology, December 1945, by James Douglas (also issued as OEMU Report No. 100)