The Child Amputee in Post-World War II America

September 26, 2023, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time

~ Annual Ravitch Lecture ~

Lisa Joy Pruitt, PhD (Middle Tennessee State University)

Dr. Lisa Joy Pruitt, PhD (Middle Tennessee University), will give the Annual Ravitch Lecture to kick off the C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society's 40th lecture season. Before 1945, the standard of care for child amputees and/or those with congenital limb differences was to delay treatment and rehabilitation when possible or otherwise to cope with surgical procedures and prosthetic limbs designed for adults. After 1945, practitioners coordinated their efforts, revolutionized the rehabilitation of child amputees, and profoundly influenced the development of pediatric prosthetics.

A recording of this free public online talk can be found by clicking here.

Image description: The first panel of the comic strip reads, "Do Not." In the second panel, a man with light skin and short black hair wearing hospital pajamas lies on a bed with his left leg bent over the edge; his left foot has been amputated. The text reads "...hang stump over bed." In the third panel a similar man is reading a newspaper. The text reads, "...sit in wheelchair with stump flexed." The image comes from A.B. Wilson, Jr., "Limb Prosthetics Today," Artificial Limbs 7 (1963): 1-42, page 13.