Canada is well noted for having great medical services like how medical expenses are covered by OHIP and government. Canada gives the opportunity nationwide for medical care. Canada is known for its great breakthrough medical inventions. Like how Obama has now instigated free health care, I think Canada is breaching its goodness to America because of our system.
“As we enter our centennial year we are still a young nation, very much in the formative stages. Our national condition is still flexible enough that we can make almost anything we wish of our nation. No other country is in a better position than Canada to go ahead with the evolution of a national purpose devoted to all that is good and noble and excellent in the human spirit.”
Canadian contributions to the Medical field has dated back in the 17th century. The native
people passed on their traditions and rituals orally. When explorers set their feet on this promise land, they recorded all of the native peoples practices and beliefs on paper. Native people’s medicine was interconnected to the religious system in which they believed that all diseases were caused by a magical force and in return they would brew up a magical cure for healing these diseases. The most respectable and dependable person in this community was a Shaman who provided his medical care for the Native community. They also searched the earth’s medicine such as oil of wintergreen, bloodroot, high bush cranberries as effective plant remedies. They also used physical procedures such as sweat lodges and massages. When famous explorers such as Jacques Cartier learned about their practices, the native people started contracting epidemic diseases that the European settlers gave.
Europeans during the 17th century were on top with their growing knowledge on diseases and they progressed in their theories as their knowledge built up. It is recorded that the first medical practitioners were French and were barber surgeons, they were still in training and not fully certified. During the war time there were two noted general practitioners Robert Giffard and Michel Sarrazin, they dedicated their lives to serving the colonists. Considering that surgery was very limited during this time. Michel Sarrazin was serving the French troops in Canada and was appointed a surgeon major and later an official physician of the Hôtel-Dieu. He later became famous for contributing to helping hundreds of colonists recover from Typhus. He was then appointed a botanist.
In the 18th Century, Upper Canada settlers were afflicted by an acute infectious disease, severe injuries, serious illnesses such as malaria. Physicians were worried so they turned to the remedies of the native peoples. Later on a great discovery was discovered by Abraham Gesner, who had past education in London, and is known for discovering kerosene. Kerosene is a type of fuel. It is presently widely used to poer aircraft and some rockets. David Parkerwas the first physician in Canada to operate with the help of anaesthesia.
In the 19th Century, there was a very famous physician Christopher Widmer known as the father of surgery. He had immigrated from Britain to fulfill his career in Canada. He advanced the practice of modern medicine in Canada. W.R. Beaumont, he became famous for inventing surgical devices. William Rawlins Beaumont is noted for inventing a a gynecological fistula instrument to close fistulae (1836) , an instrument for making deep sutures, used in surgery for cleft palates (1837) ,an instrument for removing polyps from the uterus, nose, and ear; and tonsils (1837) an umbrella-shaped vaginal speculum with steel blades (1837) , a sliding iris forceps (1863), to enable the surgeon to remove portions of the iris without tearing the cornea upon exit. He also had the original theory for the sewing machine.
There were two Canadian doctors that made major contributions they were W.E Brown from University of Toronto and he established the value of ethylene as an anaesthetic, and in 1942 Dr Harold Griffith advanced the science of anaesthesia by his use of curare(intocostrin), it is known as a plant extract use by South Americans as an arrow poison. The second discovery, by the Englishman Joseph Lister, derived from Pasteur's work. Lister proved that the recovery rate of patients suffering wounds could be drastically improved if the wounds were disinfected (Lister first used carbolic acid for this purpose).
The most famous invention internationally is Frederick Banting’s insulin. After a long research he finally discovered insulin in 1922. Banting worked along with Cherles Best and J.J.R. Macleod. Globally their discovery had saved millions of people.
Without Canadian contributions to the advance of medical technology now, we would be suffering the real pain of surgeries without anaesthesia and people suffering from diabetes would not be able to perform without their insulin. I have been inspired by the great technological breakthroughs that Canadians have done to improve our health!
So, this comes to show how proud I am to be a CANADIAN!
References:
http://www.encyclopediecanadienne.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005203 – Canadian Medical contributions
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Technological_and_industrial_history_of_Canada - Technological History of Canada
http://www.newwr.ca/SiteCollectionImages/Content/MPj01789540000%5B1%5D.jpg – OHIP
http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/obf_images/45/7c/8fa4b34e99ccbabbdc28b68820a2.jpg - shaman
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/collections/gallery/wartime/2777_Working_New_Caledonia.jpg - war front
http://www.james.com/beaumont/images_canada/spec.gif - W.E.B inventions
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