This gallery contains 13 photos.
Mastectomy aka Breast Amputation or Breast Removal is a surgical procedure done to treat breast cancer. I can imagine breasts are a very important part of a woman’s appearance as their size and shape are noticeable even on a fully … Continue reading
Cancer is without doubt one of the most frightening diseases. About 600,000 people die from cancer each year in the USA alone, with 7.6 million losing their life to the disease annually worldwide. Global cancer toll is high, but it’s still not what it could be had medical research not progressed the way it did. As can be seen from these rare, black and white antique photos from the 19th century, doctors were familiar with cancer for centuries and for centuries they tried to find the way to cure the patients suffering from the disease. Obviously, while there’s been some significant progress, we still have a long way to go before cancer stops being of major concern.
It is interesting to realize that some of the pictures are of operations on patients without anesthesia. Until the introduction of sulfuric ether, patients were left to endure the pain of having the surgeons tools rip through their flesh fully conscious. Surgeons’ reputations usually depended upon how fast they could perform necessary operations. The best ones could allegedly amputate an arm in one minute, and a leg in three.
All photos were taken by New York ophthalmologist Dr. Stanley B. Burns throughout the mid to late 1800s. It’s a nice collection of rare photos – some of the first of its kind – of cancer patients around the world. It’s also a nice collection to complement the Early Medical Photography post. Big props to Phil for hooking me up with these pics:
It’s been a while since we’ve had any ancient, Black and White photos on Best Gore so let’s fix that. This is a collection of Early Medical Photography from mid 19th century (circa 1843) till mid 20th century (circa 1939). All photos are in Black and White and bear certain atmosphere that is just difficult or impossible to mimic nowadays. Cameras back then took a while to set up. They were much clunkier and one wouldn’t be able to just pull one them of their pocket to readily point and shoot. As a result, the photos are posed and may seem as if they lacked in the gore department, but they make up for it with eerie mood and bizarre instruments medics of that time used on people.
Last time I posted sets of old black and white photos, I wasn’t sure if you’re gonna like it, but the overall response was positive, so I hope you’ll enjoy these early medical photos just as well:
Woman who was the owner of this breast severely neglected the cancer tumor that has developed on her breast and allowed it to grow into an unbearable size. Doctors were still able to save her life with mastectomy – surgical removal of her breasts, but still… she should have been doing her due diligence and checked her breasts regularly for any lumps or knots. Obviously, even after proper self checks have been neglected, this woman also neglected to have the lump looked at when it grown beyond hard to find size. When mastectomy was performed, her breast cancer tumor had overgrown the breast itself.
The photo of this large tumor is from the medical book that students who study to be doctors learn from. I’m assuming cancerous cells must have spread further into the tissue as surgeons removed a whole extra chunk of tissue during mastectomy that seems to reach far away from the tumor itself. Either way – the woman who allowed this breast cancer tumor to grow this big can count herself lucky that the cancer did not metastasize into other body parts so it was possible to save her life with mastectomy. She’d lost her breast, but she’s alive. Hope this was a good enough lesson for her and she’ll pay more attention to her body from now on. Breast cancer is second most common cancer in the world, after lung cancer. It should not be taken lightly.