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Close - an Ally. It was Gilles at the Royal Army Medical Corps in WW1 who pioneered skin grafts and plastic surgery. He'd done thousands of facial reconstructions by war's end.

He set up a plastic surgery clinic between the wars.

A relative of his, McIndoe, became famous (the better known of the two today) for his work in WW2 for pioneering and inventing many treatments for burn victims. Burns had become a common injury for pilots and aircrew. He formed the Guinea Pig Club for patients and effectively pioneered rehabilitation. He convinced the locals to visit the hospital in Sussex regularly and befriend patients. They organised trips out to the town so they could feel "normal" again (that became so common locals no longer stared), allowing a bar in the hospital, regular clothes or uniforms not PJs and countless other touches. The hospital still specialises in burns and reconstruction.

McIndoe ended up with honours from most of the Allied nations if I remember right.

Edit: More detail




I recently managed to set fire to my legs, and can confirm that the unit founded by McIndoe is still going in Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead [1] Luckily, my wounds weren't severe and I only needed to be treated there as an outpatient.

[1] https://www.qvh.nhs.uk/our-services/plastic-surgery-and-burn...


The Germans during WW2 had the best plastic surgery for burns.


Do you have any citations or history books you'd recommend? That flies in the face of everything I've ever seen or read, and is not mentioned, even briefly, on Wikipedia as far as I can see.

McIndoe gets extensive entries both for himself and under plastic surgery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery#Development_of...


My source is family experience with it. Sorry it's anecdotal. I imagine much was lost in the war and its chaotic aftermath.




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