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A review by jhbandcats
The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
5.0
An extraordinary history of the doctor who perfected plastic surgery and facial reconstruction on WWI soldiers whose faces had been destroyed. Dr Harold Gillies didn’t know much about facial reconstruction when he first began trying to save patients from a lifetime of isolation and depression caused by the stigma of facial disfigurement. He came to pioneer new methods of surgery that not only saved soldiers’ physical lives but their emotional lives as well.
For soldiers with mangled faces whose fiancées left them or whose children ran away screaming in terror, Dr Gillies was a savior. He suffered many failures as he was learning along the way but they were outstripped by his successes. He went on to perform facial reconstruction in WWII, working in private practice in times of peace. His two books on plastic surgery of the face are still valuable.
Lindsey Fitzharris gives an overview of the wartime medical complex on the Continent and its expansion to England, and shows how Gillies continued to grow his knowledge as he did all he could to return his patients to lives as normal as possible. An excellent medical history.
For soldiers with mangled faces whose fiancées left them or whose children ran away screaming in terror, Dr Gillies was a savior. He suffered many failures as he was learning along the way but they were outstripped by his successes. He went on to perform facial reconstruction in WWII, working in private practice in times of peace. His two books on plastic surgery of the face are still valuable.
Lindsey Fitzharris gives an overview of the wartime medical complex on the Continent and its expansion to England, and shows how Gillies continued to grow his knowledge as he did all he could to return his patients to lives as normal as possible. An excellent medical history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail