- 19 ore fa
Nella Grande guerra intere generazioni morirono nelle trincee, sotto le bombe dell’artiglieria e i proiettili delle mitragliatrici. Solo in Italia 600.000 morti, 1 milione di feriti gravi, tra cui 500mila mutilati. Sono numeri mai visti prima. I proiettili dilaniavano i corpi, frantumavano gli arti, distruggevano i volti. La classe medica non aveva mai visto simili devastazioni fisiche, al punto che i sanitari impegnati in prima linea ebbero enormi difficoltà a fronteggiare gli orrori della guerra.
Già dopo i primi mesi la sanità militare è al collasso. L'organizzazione è tragicamente inadeguata ad una guerra moderna. Non solo mancano attrezzature e materiali, ma anche personale qualificato. Per far fronte a questa emergenza il governo italiano delibera, nel gennaio 1916, l'istituzione di una Scuola medica da campo, a San Giorgio di Nogaro, in zona di guerra: una vera e propria Università al fronte, dove tra il febbraio 1916 e la primavera del '17 si tengono corsi accelerati di medicina e chirurgia per oltre mille studenti.
Sono ragazzi che si trovano a fare pratica sui corpi dei soldati appena feriti, in un contesto in cui la medicina è chiamata a far fronte a lesioni e traumi mai conosciuti fino ad allora.
Già dopo i primi mesi la sanità militare è al collasso. L'organizzazione è tragicamente inadeguata ad una guerra moderna. Non solo mancano attrezzature e materiali, ma anche personale qualificato. Per far fronte a questa emergenza il governo italiano delibera, nel gennaio 1916, l'istituzione di una Scuola medica da campo, a San Giorgio di Nogaro, in zona di guerra: una vera e propria Università al fronte, dove tra il febbraio 1916 e la primavera del '17 si tengono corsi accelerati di medicina e chirurgia per oltre mille studenti.
Sono ragazzi che si trovano a fare pratica sui corpi dei soldati appena feriti, in un contesto in cui la medicina è chiamata a far fronte a lesioni e traumi mai conosciuti fino ad allora.
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ApprendimentoTrascrizione
00:00It is Italy that we, we must force.
00:06The gigantic battle, engaged in twenty.
00:10The death of the dead, the will of the vines.
00:13To subsist, to live, to overstep the bounds of a madman.
00:17It's the oil of love, close down the schools.
00:20It is the oil of love, the world will not have, it does not go.
00:25It is the oil of love, the war of the dead and the victory were not in vain.
01:10No anatomical pieces, mutilated limbs and corpse segments,
01:14having injuries caused by weapons and war trauma, be lost.
01:19The pieces will be sent to a local hospital and from there they will be sent to the Institute of Pathological Anatomy
01:27of the Medical School of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
01:30It is a circular from the command of the Third Army dated August 3, 1916.
01:35Alive soldiers are cannon fodder.
01:38From the dead, a useful and vast repertoire of anatomical specimens for medical students.
01:44A few months of war were enough to realize
01:48that the organization of military health care of the Italian army
01:52It is tragically inadequate for modern warfare.
01:56Equipment and materials are scarce.
01:59Epidemics of typhus and cholera decimate both soldiers and civilians.
02:03The number of injuries is far higher than expected.
02:07Most of the wounds are of new type.
02:10Above all, there is a shortage of health personnel at all levels.
02:13Most medical students are already in the army
02:17and they must speed up the process and become medical officers
02:21to respond to the dramatic health needs at the front lines across the country.
02:26In this context, the Italian government decided, in January 1916,
02:31the establishment of a field medical school
02:34at the Third Army hospital center
02:36set up in San Giorgio di Nogaro, in a war zone.
02:40A real university at the front.
02:43Between February 1916 and the spring of 17,
02:47in what will be called the Military University,
02:50accelerated courses in medicine and surgery are held
02:53for over a thousand fifth and sixth year students,
02:57temporarily removed from the front line
02:59for the continuation of studies and the achievement of a degree.
03:03Under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Command,
03:06for two years, the field medical school of San Giorgio di Nogaro
03:10experience an extraordinary teaching activity.
03:13It is actually an advanced and innovative school,
03:16from which doctors emerge with unimaginable training
03:19in any normal university in peacetime.
03:23It's a special story, a precious perspective
03:26to tell an important and little-known aspect,
03:30but decisive for the life and death of thousands and thousands of individuals.
03:34Italian military healthcare during the First World War
03:56At the outbreak of war, the Italian army had
03:59of 24,000 beds at the front and over 100,000 in the rear,
04:04with a thousand doctors in active service.
04:10The Italian experience of military healthcare
04:13it was born from the wars of the Risorgimento
04:15which, put together, have caused in total
04:17the same number of dead and wounded
04:19of the first battle of the Isonzo alone.
04:25The situation is similar for all armies.
04:28Pre-war medical science is prepared to face
04:31especially stab wounds
04:33or from rifle bullets, relatively simple and clean.
04:41The terrible impact was after the first fighting, already in 15.
04:45Not just on our front.
04:47The most serious impact was on the French front,
04:50between Germans and English.
04:51So there was already military experience,
04:54but the mass of assistance, let's say, had not yet been adequate.
05:06The problems are the same for all belligerent armies.
05:10The structural deficiencies and the general preparation of military health,
05:15especially in the face of the improvement of means of destruction
05:18and the dizzying increase in the number of fighters.
05:27The reality of modern warfare is very different from previous wars.
05:31New wounds, deep lacerations,
05:34often soiled by the debris of the battlefield,
05:36very difficult to cure.
05:44What changed a lot in the Great War
05:48It was the type of wounds.
05:50Different weapons are involved.
05:52Phenomena occur that were not previously known,
05:55of the large amount of shots and shrapnel.
05:59There are more shrapnel wounds, almost almost,
06:01that the direct gunshot wounds.
06:04After that these were infected wounds.
06:06The second feature is the infectability of the wounds,
06:09which became tragic in the following days,
06:12because there were no antibiotics at the time.
06:22Most of the wounds are caused by artillery,
06:26which experienced exponential growth during the war.
06:29Ever larger and more powerful calibers are being produced
06:32and the volume of fire increases from battle to battle.
06:39There were two main problems.
06:42One is bleeding.
06:43It was not easy to transport the wounded.
06:46And then, at the beginning of the war, there were no blood transfusions yet.
06:49And so the blood that was lost, was lost.
06:53Another important thing,
06:56there was no water in the front lines.
06:58And so it wasn't easy to clean the wounds.
07:07Timeliness of treatment is a key issue,
07:10but it is not easy to strengthen the advanced dressing stations.
07:14And also the attempts to speed up transport to the best equipped hospitals
07:18they are not very successful.
07:20Due to the needs of war,
07:21the roads are clogged with supplies for the front,
07:24which always have priority over ambulances
07:28and on carts loaded with wounded.
07:32Abdominal wounds were nearly 100% fatal.
07:35Thoracic wounds could lead to upper thoracic and abscess lesions
07:39and they almost always gave pleurisy.
07:41After a month or two they developed pleurisy.
07:43And the head wounds.
07:45Head wounds with the strangest fractures,
07:48facial fractures and skull fractures,
07:52which led to neurosurgical interventions that were not easy.
07:59The first spinal anesthesias were also performed during wartime.
08:04The first openings of the skull
08:06They were giving antibiotics to prevent meningitis, right?
08:09And then the paralysis.
08:14Mortality among the wounded is frighteningly high.
08:20The hygienic conditions at front-line aid stations are appalling.
08:29Thousands of soldiers bleed to death
08:32due to negligence of healthcare personnel
08:34or simply because there aren't enough bandages.
08:38Many die from infections.
08:44And it's not just the new weapons of mass destruction or that kill.
08:48It is a mass war, a modern war.
08:52Vehicles and trains can easily concentrate
08:55large masses of men in limited spaces.
09:04Throughout history, war has always been accompanied
09:07from the spread of epidemics, an inevitable effect
09:10large massings of troops.
09:12The Great War is no exception.
09:15Huge camps,
09:17incredible concentrations of men in limited areas
09:20with the consequent lowering of hygiene standards,
09:23of power supply.
09:25All this is aggravated by a constant influx of new soldiers.
09:28from all the provinces of Italy,
09:30including those where infectious diseases are endemic.
09:33Only in the Third Army, between July and October 1915,
09:38there are over 1200 cases of cholera,
09:41with 349 deaths.
09:43The outbreaks of infection are particularly acute
09:46among the troops on the front line,
09:47where the disinfection of the trenches
09:49it is made impossible by the needs of war.
09:52In some cases,
09:53the soldiers find themselves occupying infected enemy trenches.
09:57Thus, the Austro-Hungarian soldiers
09:59they transmit a form of widespread cholera
10:01on the Russian front among the Italian soldiers.
10:03The outcome of the first year of the war is dramatic.
10:07In Italy, in 1915,
10:09cholera and typhoid infect over 21,000 people,
10:13with more than 4,000 deaths.
10:18It's a war of large numbers.
10:23No one could have predicted the scale of the massacre.
10:30Of mass movements,
10:32of bayonet attacks,
10:34where the machine gun counted for a lot,
10:36artillery counted for a lot,
10:38the fences counted for a lot.
10:40This is a very significant number of dead and wounded, evidently.
10:47Since the outbreak of hostilities,
10:50in all belligerent armies,
10:52a precise procedure is established
10:54to recover the wounded on the battlefield,
10:57from first aid to the hospital in the rear.
11:04What was the newly arrived doctor or nurse supposed to do?
11:08The injured man had to be taken to a safe area,
11:12put it in a safe area,
11:13that is, 10 meters maybe,
11:14in the trenches.
11:17clean as much as possible with water,
11:20but still clean the wounds and bandage them.
11:23At that point the wounded man was carried
11:26in second-rank hospitals,
11:29which were field hospitals,
11:31with curtains,
11:31where the greatest things were done.
11:35What did The Greatest Things mean?
11:37The wounds that could not be treated on the fronts were reviewed,
11:40the lacerated bruised wounds,
11:42the abdominal wounds,
11:43the blows to the chest that had caused,
11:46which caused damage,
11:47which were not very obvious wounds in previous wars,
11:51while in these they were dramatic.
11:52These people were then taken to specially equipped hospitals.
11:59This whole system,
12:01very tidy on paper,
12:03It jumps punctually during major offensives.
12:05When every day they go down to the field hospitals
12:08with 50 or 100 beds,
12:10thousands and thousands of injured,
12:12tired, suffering,
12:14with infected wounds,
12:15new wounds are often too large
12:18to be sutured,
12:19sewn,
12:20blindfolded.
12:27Everything is in short supply,
12:29especially doctors
12:30and qualified staff.
12:33When it got to war,
12:35military health care should address
12:38a situation,
12:39to say the least,
12:40titanic.
12:41The first measures taken
12:43those were the ones
12:44of enlistment
12:46of all medical students,
12:49of reserve doctors
12:51up to class 76,
12:54and then of militarization
12:56of university professors.
13:06To solve it once and for all
13:08the problem of the shortage of doctors
13:10on the front line,
13:11a brilliant health officer
13:12suggests the institution
13:14of a real medical school
13:15legally recognized.
13:22Lieutenant Colonel Tusini,
13:25clinical surgeon teacher,
13:28who had the responsibility
13:30of the second hospital group
13:32of the Third Army,
13:33made up of six field hospitals
13:36and two war hospitals,
13:38he proposed to the Supreme Command
13:40the establishment of a university
13:42in the rear of the Third Army,
13:45in San Giorgio di Nogaro,
13:46in complete safety.
13:52Tusini's intuition was this,
13:55if the Supreme Command
13:57cannot send students
14:00to complete their studies,
14:01it would have been the university
14:02to move to the front.
14:07But not the university in general,
14:10only the medical faculty.
14:20There are many resistances.
14:22The university, the academic world,
14:24teachers' associations rise up
14:27against what is perceived
14:28as a serious interference by the military
14:30in the organization of education.
14:33Universities are in serious crisis.
14:35Most of the students at the front.
14:38State funding drastically reduced
14:40for war reasons.
14:42The decree of establishment,
14:44rejected by the Senate of the Kingdom,
14:45it is signed in a closed Parliament
14:47for the Christmas holidays,
14:48with an emergency procedure.
14:50The place of tenancy decree
14:52it will then have to be ratified by Parliament,
14:54which however will find itself in front of
14:56to a factual situation.
15:07Sunday, February 13, 1916,
15:10under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Command,
15:12the Military University
15:14is officially inaugurated
15:15and the courses start the next day,
15:18February 14th.
15:21At the solemn ceremony
15:23the highest military authorities participate,
15:25the Chief of Staff was present
15:27of the army,
15:28General Luigi Cadorna.
15:36Saint George of Nogaro
15:38it is a town in the lower Friulian plain
15:40that in 1915
15:42it has no more than 4,500 inhabitants.
15:50Its geographical position
15:52and the last train station
15:54before the front line
15:55determines its transformation
15:57in a large military center
15:58with food depots,
16:00clothing and ammunition,
16:02office and command headquarters
16:03and several field hospitals.
16:07This is where in a few weeks
16:09the military genius realizes
16:11the structures of a real
16:12university campus
16:13widespread throughout the territory.
16:24Four large classrooms are built
16:27like an amphitheater,
16:28the largest with 500 seats,
16:30the canteen
16:30and other wooden structures.
16:49the 366 students of the first academic year
16:53they work very hard.
16:55In addition to the 47 hours of lessons per week,
16:58all students are required
16:59to carry out daily
17:01hospital service
17:02at health facilities
17:04present in the area,
17:05both military and civilian ones
17:07and in bacteriology laboratories.
17:19In the evening,
17:21students gather
17:22to further your studies
17:23in the reading room,
17:24set up in a cinema
17:25requisitioned by the military authority.
17:30The military city was
17:32a particular entity,
17:34much desired
17:35also from Cadonna,
17:37because they had been enlisted
17:38of all healthy students
17:40evidently from Italy,
17:42which they necessarily had
17:43had to interrupt his studies.
17:45So what?
17:46San Giorgio di Nogaro was chosen
17:48which was a bit in the litreways,
17:50but where was this great
17:51hospital complex,
17:52to educate these students
17:54or young doctors
17:55who were recalled,
17:57they spent months here,
17:58a few months,
18:00in 16-17.
18:06they were important teachers.
18:08The Nogaro studies
18:09he had teachers
18:09very important
18:10in the Italian university,
18:12who then returned
18:13in the Italian university.
18:23Work for students
18:25it's very intense
18:26and the results
18:27far exceed
18:28expectations.
18:31In addition to the thousands of injured
18:33of the Third Army,
18:34in the large hospitals in the area
18:36they flock from all parts of the kingdom
18:38affected patients
18:39from the most varied ailments.
18:44Aspiring doctors
18:46they have at their disposal
18:47an immense case history.
18:48They have the opportunity
18:49to examine clinical cases
18:51most disparate,
18:52especially to study diseases,
18:54therapies,
18:55post-operative courses
18:56in their various stages
18:58and demonstrations.
19:04The director of the medical school,
19:06Professor Giuseppe Tusini,
19:08he summed it up like this
19:09the characteristics
19:10of the military university,
19:11the advantages of this
19:12very special
19:13educational experience.
19:15For an educational exercise
19:17so intense and continuous,
19:19all the professors
19:20they had no other deviation
19:22in their business.
19:23The students,
19:24precisely because in a small town
19:26transformed furthermore
19:27almost everything in the hospital,
19:29they had no field
19:30to distract yourself from studying.
19:32From this
19:32a continuous was born
19:34attendance at school
19:35by the teachers
19:37and of the students,
19:38a mutual cooperation
19:39wanted by the masters,
19:41a harmony
19:42and a studious custom
19:44on the part of the students,
19:45which succeeded
19:46to your advantage
19:48of mental education
19:49of the young people.
19:58The medical school
19:59of San Giorgio di Nogaro
20:00is followed with interest
20:02from the high commands
20:03and by health officials
20:04of the allied armies
20:05that they have to face
20:07daily
20:08similar problems
20:09and they are admired
20:10from the Italian organization.
20:17It was a success,
20:21word spread,
20:23delegations,
20:24they visited the university campus
20:27of San Giorgio di Nogaro,
20:29delegations,
20:30not only French,
20:32but also English
20:33and even Japanese.
20:38The idea itself
20:40of a crash course
20:41to be kept out
20:42from traditional places
20:43of university education
20:45had aroused
20:46in a first phase
20:47the protests
20:48and the resistances
20:49of academic circles,
20:50but the quality
20:51of the teachings
20:52it is such
20:53that the medical school
20:54of San Giorgio di Nogaro
20:55comes fully
20:56recognized
20:57and integrated
20:57in the system
20:58of the royals and universities.
21:02The need to educate
21:04these soldiers
21:05it was a necessity
21:06every day,
21:07warlike,
21:08when faced with new things, right?
21:09The university
21:10it was a bit perched
21:11of his typical teachings.
21:14There was this state
21:16conflictual
21:17between teaching
21:17academic-professor
21:20and teaching
21:21practical warfare.
21:26It had seemed
21:27at university
21:27that these new graduates
21:30could escape
21:31from the Normans
21:32somehow.
21:33In the curriculum
21:35of these students
21:36there had to be
21:37pediatrics,
21:37gynecology
21:38and obstetrics,
21:39which in an army
21:40belligerent
21:41it's not very easy
21:42find.
21:43So what?
21:43right here
21:44in San Giorgio di Nogaro
21:45this university
21:46he took
21:47in itself
21:49women
21:49of the population
21:50who was here,
21:51the sick
21:52of the population
21:52here.
21:53Women,
21:54panorienti,
21:55children.
21:56There are some photos
21:57even some parts
21:57pediatricians,
21:58of the gynecological parts.
22:00Here you are,
22:00so this
22:01to say
22:01that teaching
22:03to have a value
22:04it had to be
22:05complete.
22:17the accelerated courses
22:18of medicine
22:19held in San Giorgio
22:20of Nogaro
22:21they prepare
22:21a number
22:22significant
22:23of new officers
22:24doctors
22:24literally formed
22:26on the field.
22:27Many illustrious people
22:28teachers
22:28from different universities
22:29Italian
22:30they visit the school
22:31to keep
22:32of the conferences
22:32on the subjects
22:33object of study.
22:36For two years
22:38they met here
22:40students from all over Italy.
22:42Among the descendants
22:43let's say
22:44matured
22:45we find it
22:46doctors,
22:49we find
22:49university professors,
22:51we find surgeons
22:51very valid
22:52with which we have
22:53gained experience
22:53and then they appear
22:54even some figures
22:55quite new
22:56psychiatry
22:57and neurology.
22:59Neurology
23:00for the extreme
23:02experience
23:03made on the wounds
23:04nervous,
23:05on the paralyzed,
23:05the injuries
23:06of nerve trunks
23:07and psychiatry
23:08for a phenomenon
23:09which had been
23:09already seen
23:10in war episodes
23:11previous ones
23:11but which reaches
23:12an importance
23:13fundamental
23:14of the great war
23:16Meaning what
23:16the so-called
23:17shock
23:17traumatic shock
23:19bomb shock
23:21is born
23:21psychiatry
23:22war.
23:33surgical techniques
23:35radiology
23:36the study
23:37of the functions
23:37cardiac
23:38pulmonary
23:39and many other aspects
23:40in fact
23:41the war
23:42causes
23:42an acceleration
23:43of progress
23:44scientific
23:44in the health field
23:45the role itself
23:47of the doctor
23:48it changes
23:48in the course
23:49of the conflict
23:50the figure is born
23:51of the specialist
23:52in a single branch
23:52clinic
23:53rather than
23:54a doctor
23:55prepared in a way
23:55generic
23:56in all fields
24:09the university
24:10it closes
24:10with the newfound
24:11of Caporetto
24:11why right here
24:12we meet
24:13Saint George of Nogaro
24:14there is a station
24:16which was the highlight
24:17of transport
24:18of the sick
24:18of the wounded
24:27the thing that was
24:28then tragic
24:29it was in the night
24:30for example
24:30the next day
24:31of the rediscovered
24:32of Caporetto
24:40all hospitalized patients
24:41and the staff
24:42they were
24:42brought
24:44beyond the Piave
24:51the extraordinary
24:53experience
24:54of the medical school
24:55of San Giorgio di Nogaro
24:56heart of the whole
24:57medical system
24:58hospital
24:58of the army
24:59it ends
25:00in 1917
25:01but its effects
25:03on Italian medicine
25:04they are deep
25:06and long-lasting
25:23that of the medical school
25:25of San Giorgio di Nogaro
25:26it's an experience
25:27who scored
25:27both professionally
25:29that from the human side
25:30all those
25:31who took part in it
25:32many students
25:34of the military university
25:35they will become figures
25:36prominent
25:37in the world of research
25:38and teaching
25:39of medicine
25:40and several students
25:41they kept
25:42an epistolary contact
25:43with families
25:44of San Giorgio di Nogaro
25:46in 1975
25:47one of them wrote
25:49the years pass
25:51but it remains clear
25:52and indelible
25:53the memory of Saint George
25:54and its inhabitants
25:55what a lot of goodness
25:57they demonstrated
25:57to us students
25:58of the medical school
26:00in the distant
26:001916-1917
26:03without any disturbance
26:05I will appreciate all of their
26:06news
26:06all the more so
26:07that in these bad times
26:09where people
26:10he only thinks about money
26:11keeping the good
26:12dear friendships
26:13it's a precious gift
26:15which is a precious gift
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