Thursday, September 6, 2012

Day 237 - Radiation #21: Rubber Gloves

Nothing really to report here. Just the same run of the mill radiation treatment. Today the machines were all up and working well. Today they took films of me to make sure they were radiating the right areas. Other than that... boring!

Fact #21: I learned the history of rubber gloves (thanks Rebecca). We can say "thank you" to William Halsted. Thanks to him, he made the wearing of rubber gloves a staple in the medical field. He was the founder of the gloves when his nurse developed a rash after washing with mercuic chloride in the 1890s. He asked Goodyear Rubber company to make thin rubber gloves to protect her hands. The thought of germ control wasn't the goal, but it was found that wearing the gloves did prevent the spread of disease and infection. Dr. Halsted was methodical about sterilizing his medical equipment and later developed surgical hats and gowns. Halsted developed several new types of operations, including the radical mastectomy for breast cancer. He also became addicted to cocaine, but kicked the habit and became a founding professor at John Hopkins Hospital. Also of note, the nurse, Caroline Hampton, became his wife.

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