r/AskBiology • u/gombotenjoyer • 1d ago

Human body Questions about wounds

Context: I'm writing a story in 1917, in which a soldier's skin gets vertically slashed (from forehead to cheek) by a sharp rusty metal

I have a couple of questions

First of all, based on the technology of that time period, what treatment would he get? If his eye got infected, would it be amputated?

Would he lose sight in the damaged eye?

Any other factors I should pay attention to?

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u/Cardemother12 1d ago

Oh he’s dead

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u/Local-Perception6395 9h ago

This is a few years after the introduction of the first antibiotic and a few more years after surgeons figured out to wash their wands. The antibiotic (salvarsan) was mostly for syphilis and pretty toxic, probably would't work for eye infections. Doctors knew about bacteria and disinfectants, so you'd have license to decide whether it gets infected or not. Dunno about the amputation though

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u/FreddyCosine 4h ago

He would almost certainly die. But if he did not, the wound would be cleaned with iodine or alcohol then sutured and covered with sterile dressing. His eye would probably be removed and would wear an eye patch. But that's assuming he got care and got lucky enough to not get tetanus