The Modern Car 

Mr Gissane (later professor) asked to assist the rover designers’ team to help make a much safer car.

His contribution was the ‘The Safety Zone’, the ridged passenger area and the removal of all projections from the front of cars. So, they no longer saw cyclists with a wing mirror etc, sticking from their head. He also was involved in ‘The Crumple Zone’, parts of the car designed to progressively collapse in an accident to burn up the energy released in the crash, the minimum tyre depth

Gas and Electric Fires

Mr Douglas Jackson, Mr Leonard Colebrook and the rest of the burn’s unit led an influential campaign for the fire guards act, making it compulsory to have a grill in front of the element fitted by law, as well as flame resistant night clothes. Jack Casson made T.V. appeals to reduce the number of casualties resulting from Bonfire Night. 

The tangential excision of burnt skin.

A technique to excise burnt skin followed by skin grafting was pioneered by Douglas Jackson and changed practice for ever and reduced both the morbidity and mortality of burn injury

Use of Anti Coagulants

It is now routine for all patients considered at risk to ben anti coagulants, but it was a major breakthrough in the prevention of many deaths by thrombosis. Simon Sevitt (pathologist) decided to start using what was then thought only as rat poison, Warfarin, on this at risk group. This resulted in the medical staff no longer having to carry out daily checks for Deep Vein Thrombosis.

The Hicks Bone Plate

Developed by Mr John Hicks, it was considered by far the best plate for internal fixation of bone fractures. A perforated plate is fastened onto the 2 parts of bone with screws, which reconstructs the correct spatial relationship between the fragments of bone, it holds the pieces together for about 6 months until they have bonded themselves together naturally. 

Ruscoe Clarke

Seen as a giant among trauma surgeons and was remembered for many years by an annual memorial lecture. He pioneered so many aspects of injuries, including: The Major Injuries Unit, the replacement of blood volume loss, which is blood lost outside the body and into the other tissue. The previous practice was to replace 2 or a maximum of 4 pints, instead of however much was required to replace and maintain full blood volume, be it 20 pints. He also coined the phrase, “The Golden 20 minutes.” Ruscoe Clarke’s use of Tracheotomy to save the lives of many brain damaged young motor cyclist, led to a whole new industry in Tracheotomies (new more powerful suckers, not air bottles, new catheters, not soft red rubber ‘Foley’s’, air filters and humification).

As a result of the increased survival rates from these advancements, a new field of Rehabilitation was formed. An example is the rehabilitation treatment for severe brain damage.

Burns Research

Barrier Cream in the wartime (1940s)

Skin Culture in the laboratory 1990

The introduction of the use of penicillin in burn care in the 1940s

Head Injuries

The formation of the Head Injuries Club and “Headway” now an International Organisation.

The introduction of the concept of functional rehabilitation by jack Thackery and the outstand results

Walking frame – Jack Thackeray

 Pioneered the work on developing a walking frame, a similar design of which was   subsequntly manufactured  as the “zimmer “ frame.

Fluid Resuscitation

Ruscoe Clarke pioneered adequate fluid resuscitation after trauma. Colin took this further believing that if after fluid replacement, urine output was still poor, the renal circulation needed dilating. The rest of the world did this by using low dose dopamine, but all acknowledged that this treatment rarely, if ever, worked. Colin’s solution was to use sub toxic doses of sodium nitroprusside that universally dilated blood vessels. Then and now his approach to improving blood flow to tissues was unique.

Equipment

Cobbling together pieces of available equipment using jubilee clips to achieve the desired result. (When we lacked a required piece of equipment, we used our imagination to create a substitute. Such innovative life-saving practice is sadly prevented in the modern NHS due to Health and Safety regulations)