Burma Surgeon

Last updated

Burma Surgeon is a biographical account by physician Gordon S. Seagrave who narrates his twenty years of experience in war-torn Burma. [1] It was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1943. [2] Seagrave did not leave the country when he had a chance since he realized that the region was dependent on him for healthcare. He was later charged for treason when the rebel group by Kachin Lieutenant Naw Seng came into power. [3] [4] Burma Surgeons was his third book. He later also published another book Burma surgeon returns. [5]

Contents

Critical reception

Jean C. Sabine reviewed the book positively in Bulletin of the History of Medicine , calling it a "vigorous, chatty account" of Seagrave's decades-long experience. [6]

Sequel and adaptation

A sequel book, Burma Surgeon Returns , was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1946. [7] The book was also adapted to a podcast titled The Cavalcade of America: "Burma Surgeon" by Milton Wayne and Robert Richard in 2013. [8]

Related Research Articles

Burma Railway WW II Japanese Thai-Burma Railway

The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Siam–Burma Railway, the Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War II. This railway completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Japanese Government is Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō (泰緬連接鉄道), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway.

The year 1947 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Burma Road Road linking Burma (Myanmar) with southwestern China opened in 1938

The Burma Road was a road linking Burma with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Preventing the flow of supplies on the road helped motivate the occupation of Burma by the Empire of Japan in 1942. Use of the road was restored to the Allies in 1945 after the completion of the Ledo Road. Some parts of the old road are still visible today.

William C. Menninger American physician

William Claire Menninger was a co-founder with his brother Karl and his father of The Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, an internationally known center for treatment of behavioral disorders.

Robert Liston British surgeon (1794–1847)

Robert Liston was a Scottish surgeon. Liston was noted for his speed and skill in an era prior to anaesthetics, when speed made a difference in terms of pain and survival. He was the first Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College Hospital in London and performed the first public operation utilizing modern anaesthesia in Europe.

Sterling Seagrave was an American historian. He was the author of The Soong Dynasty, The Marcos Dynasty, Gold Warriors and numerous other books which address unofficial and clandestine aspects of the 20th-century political history of countries in the Far East.

New 6th Army was a Chinese combat command involved in the Burma Campaign of World War II, and later, the Chinese Civil War.

Howard Atwood Kelly

Howard Atwood Kelly, M.D., was an American gynecologist. He obtained his B.A. degree and M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He, William Osler, William Halsted, and William Welch together are known as the "Big Four", the founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He is credited with establishing gynecology as a specialty by developing new surgical approaches to gynecological diseases and pathological research. He also developed several medical innovations, including the improved cystoscope, Kelly's clamp, Kelly's speculum, and Kelly's forceps. Because Kelly was a famous prohibitionist and Fundamentalist Christian, many of his contemporaries expressed skepticism towards his medical professionalism.

Robert Lefkowitz American physician and biochemist

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz is an American physician and biochemist. He is best known for his groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

Jocelyn Seagrave is an American film and television actress, best known for playing Julie Camaletti on Guiding Light and Jessica Mitchell on Fox's Pacific Palisades.

Hunterian Society

The Hunterian Society, founded in 1819 in honour of the Scottish surgeon John Hunter (1728–1793), is a society of physicians and dentists based in London.

Namhkam, Shan State Town in Shan State, Myanmar

Namhkam, also spelled Nam Kham is the principal town of Namhkam Township in northern Shan State, Myanmar, situated on the southern bank of the Shweli River near the border with Yunnan Province, China.

Gordon Stifler Seagrave was a Burmese-born American missionary, physician and author.

Julius H. Comroe, Jr. was a surgeon, medical researcher, author and educator, described by The New York Times as an "award-winning expert on the functions and physiology of the human heart and lungs". His work contributed to advances in respiratory physiology, cardiology, heart and vascular surgery, and the treatment of pulmonary disease, hypertension and high blood pressure.

George Rosen (1910–1977) was an American physician, public health administrator, journal editor, and medical historian. His major interests were in the relationship of social, economic and cultural factors upon health.

Myint Myint Khin was a Burmese medical professor and writer. An English major at the University of Rangoon, she was the chair of the Department of Medicine of the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay from 1965 to 1984, and served as a consultant at the World Health Organization from 1985 to 1991. Her literary career began in 1996, spurred on by the HIV/AIDS crisis in the country. She published 11 books in Burmese and two in English. At the time of her death, the former professor was collaborating on an English language book on the history of medical education in the country.

<i>A History of Medicine</i> Medical book

A History of Medicine is a book by Scottish surgeon Douglas Guthrie that was published in 1945 by Thomas Nelson and Sons. It came to wide attention after it was reviewed by the playwright George Bernard Shaw and marked the beginning for Guthrie of a new career in teaching the history of medicine.

Saw Sa

Saw SaFRCS MBE was a Burmese physician, midwife, hospital administrator, Christian missionary, suffragist, and government official. Dr. Saw Sa was the first Burmese woman to earn an advanced medical degree, and the first woman to serve in the upper house of the colonial parliament.

William John Virgin Indian Medical Service Officer & Founding Principal, Dhaka Medical College

William John Virgin was a serving Major in the former Indian Medical Service in British India. He was the first Principal of Dhaka Medical College. Virgin was born in Toronto, Canada on 16 December 1905. He served primarily in India and, after its formation, Bangladesh.

Calista Vinton Luther was an American missionary and medical doctor, born in Burma (Myanmar). She was a physician after completing her medical degree in 1885, and ran a small sanitarium in New Jersey.

References

  1. Goette, John (1943-08-08). "A SURGEON IN THE JUNGLE; An American Medical Missionary Describes His Twenty Years' Practice in Peace and War BURMA SURGEON. By Gordon S. Seagrave, Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Corps, U.S.A. 295 pp. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. $3. Surgeon in the Jungle (Published 1943)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  2. C. P. (September 8, 1943). "Reviewed Work: Burma Surgeon by Gordon S. Seagrave". Far Eastern Survey . 12 (18): 184. doi:10.2307/3022701. JSTOR   3022701.
  3. "On This Day | The Day When a US Medic was Jailed in Myanmar for Treason". The Irrawaddy. 2020-01-17. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  4. "Burma Surgeon Returns". Journal of the American Medical Association. 132 (6): 357–358. 1946-10-12. doi:10.1001/jama.1946.02870410045027. ISSN   0002-9955.
  5. "Trove". trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  6. Sabine, Jean C. (January 1944). "Reviewed Work: Burma Surgeon by Gordon S. Seagrave". Bulletin of the History of Medicine . 15 (1): 141–142.
  7. Hume, Edward H. (1949). "Reviewed Work: Burma Surgeon Returns by Gordon S. Seagrave". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences . 4 (4): 486–487. doi:10.1093/jhmas/IV.4.486.
  8. "The Cavalcade of America: "Burma Surgeon" | AU Digital Research Archive". auislandora-stage.wrlc.org. Retrieved 2021-02-01.