*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 TEMPLER MEDAL FOR BEST BOOK*
From Canada's top war historian, a definitive medical history of the
Great War, illuminating how the carnage of modern battle gave birth to
revolutionary life-saving innovations. It brings to light shocking
revelations of the ways the brutality of combat and the necessity of
agonizing battlefield decisions led to unimaginable strain for men and
women of medicine who fought to save the lives of soldiers.
Medical care in almost all armies during the Great War, and especially
in the Canadian medical services, was sophisticated and constantly
evolving. Vastly more wounded soldiers were saved than lost. Doctors and
surgeons prevented disease from decimating armies, confronted ghastly
wounds from chemical weap-ons, remade shattered bodies, and struggled to
ease soldiers' battle-haunted minds. After the war, the hard lessons
learned by doctors and nurses were brought back to Canada. A new
Department of Health created guidelines in the aftermath of the
1918-1919 influ-enza pandemic, which had killed 55,000 Canadians and
millions around the world. In a grim irony, the fight to improve
civilian health was furthered by the most destructive war up to that
point in human history.
But medical advances were not the only thing brought back from Europe:
Lifesavers and Body Snatchers exposes the disturbing story of the
harvesting of human body parts in medical units behind the lines. Tim
Cook has spent over a decade investigating the history of Canadian
medical doctors removing the body parts of slain soldiers and
transporting their brains, lungs, bones, and other organs to the Royal
College of Surgeons (RCS) in London, England. Almost 800 individual body
parts were removed from the dead and sent to London, where they were
stored, treated, and presented in exhibition galleries. After being
exhibited there, the body parts were displayed in Canada. This uncovered
history has never been told before and is part of the hidden legacy of
the medical war.
Based on deep archival research and unpublished letters of soldiers and
medical personnel, Lifesavers and Body Snatchers is a powerful
narrative, told in Cook's literary style, which reveals how the medical
services supported the soldiers at the front and forged a profound
legacy in shaping Canadian public health in the decades that followed.
