Abigail Tien; Lt.-Col. Andrew Beckett, MD; Maj. Dylan Pannell, MD, PhD
During the Great War, Canadian military surgeons produced some of the greatest innovations to improve survival on the battlefield. Arguably, the most important was bringing blood transfusion practice close to the edge of the battlefield to resuscitate the many casualties dying of hemorrhagic shock. Dr. L. Bruce Robertson of the Canadian Army Medical Corps was the pioneering surgeon from the University of Toronto who was able to demonstrate the benefit of blood transfusions near the front line and counter the belief that saline was the resuscitation fluid of choice in military medicine. Robertson would go on to survive the Great War, but would be taken early in life by influenza. Despite his life and career being cut short, Robertson’s work is still carried on today by many military medical organizations who strive to bring blood to the wounded in austere and dangerous settings.
Accepted May 2, 2017
Affiliations: From Havergal College, Toronto, Ont. (Tien); the Department of Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Que. (Beckett); and the Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. (Pannell).
Competing interests: None declared.
Contributors: All authors contributed substantially to the conception, writing and revision of this article and approved the final version for publication.
Correspondence to: D. Pannell, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, H186-2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto ON M4N 3M5 email@example.com