The pandemic has brought a lot of focus to the some items that were the mainstay of hospitals and doctors’ offices, had some use in households, maybe for a paint job, or cleaning the bathroom or garage but now as essential as shoes before we step out of the home – face masks and…. gloves!
Did you know the interesting story of how rubber gloves came about for use in the operating room? It is for the same reasons as we are now urged to use them, to protect ourselves and our loved ones!
I cannot think of a better subject line than the one in this article I came across:
Gloves of Love
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20873325/
Thin rubber gloves were used for the first time in the history of medicine at the end of 1889. On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of that event at the end of 2009, the great importance of that discovery for the development of surgery in general should be emphasized once again. The surgical gloves were invented and introduced by the famous American surgeon Dr. William Halsted from John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (USA).
DR. WILLIAM HALSTED AND MISS CAROLINE HAMPTON: This significant innovation actually occurred thanks to the romance between Dr. W. Halsted and his scrub nurse Miss Caroline Hampton, later his wife, Mrs. C. Halsted. According to the antiseptic practice of that hospital, the hands of the operating personnel had to be disinfected in mercuric chloride which damaged the skin of nurse Caroline. She developed a bad case of dermatitis, and because of that she considered abandoning the hospital. This prompted Dr. Halsted to contract Goodyear Rubber Company to produce thin rubber gloves to protect Caroline's hands and to keep her in his vicinity. They proved to be very satisfactory and soon Dr. Halsted's assistants too began to wear sterilized rubber gloves routinely.
Although it was not until later that the importance of rubber gloves in preventing infection was realized these "gloves of love" soon entered into general surgical practice and proved to be of the greatest importance for the development of asepsis and aseptic surgical work.
BOND AID ?
While reading about the writeup on:Gloves of love" by @Shalini Ramachandra i was reminded of another such discovery with a romantic background. It is none other than the most familiar product" BAND AID"
Earlie Dixon of New York was an employee of JOhnson and Johnson a pharmaceutical company. His wife Josephine was prone to cut her fingers often in the kitchen.
The story goes like this. Josephine was scared of cuts and wounds and the sight of blood. Whenever she got a cut, she would phone hre husband in the office and ask him to come home and attend to her wound. Dixon's colleagues would make fun of him. Josephine felt bad . But then a beloved wife is a beloved wife and Dixon was coming.
One day Dixon decided he must do something about it . He cut the medicated adhesive tape manufactured by his company into handy strips and put it on her cut. He stacked a few strips on the kitchen shelf for ready use and asked her to pull one next time.
LO! next cut the phone came again. The cut strips had stuck to each other and the pile fell on her.
Dixon worked on it and came up with a somewhat present type of Band-aid. It worked wonders for Josephine.
When he told this in the office, his higher ups saw potential in it and asked him to get a prototype.
The company worked on it and introduced machine made ones in 1924, But people did not take to it immediately.
After a decade and a half, they came up with sterilised Band-Aids . It coincided with the world war and became a global product.
Today billions of medicated adhesive strips are sold all over the world and several companies manufacture them.Uptodate, Johnson and JOhnson have said they have sold over hundred billion pieces and still counting.
Strips with designs like Mickey, Donald, Dora Iron Man, Super Man to name a few are there to entice the kids to wear them when needed,. Kids as you all know are a major chunk of their customers.
It is a billions of dollars worth proposition today. And come to think of it , It all started with a SQUEAMISH WOMAN and a DOTING HUSBAND
# Beloved wife#doting husband#First.Aid#Cuts#woman motivated discovery