Combat surgeons before, during, and after war: the legacy of Loyal Davis

Abstract

By 1942, Loyal Davis had firmly established himself as a preeminent civilian neurosurgeon. With military operations rapidly escalating, he was recruited to serve in the European Theater of Operations as a consultant to the Surgeon General. Davis brought tremendous experience, insight, and leadership to this position; however, he found the military system in which he was suddenly immersed inefficient and impassive. His requests for even basic equipment became mired in endless bureaucracy even as his communiqués to the Chief Surgeon in the European Theater and to the Surgeon General's staff in Washington seemed to fall short of their intended recipients. Then, when he attempted to vent his frustrations to his academic colleagues, he was nearly court-martialed. Notwithstanding, Davis became the first to formally recognize high-altitude frostbite and also developed protective headgear for airmen, and later in his service, he joined a contingent of senior medical leaders who visited the Soviet Union to study their system of combat casualty care. Subsequent to his service on active duty, Davis returned to his academic practice at Northwestern where he used his position as editor of Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics to advocate for change within the military medical corps. Others like Davis have contributed greatly to the advancement of combat casualty care both during active service and long after their time in uniform. This paper examines the lessons from Davis's experiences as a military neurosurgeon and his continued advocacy for change in the medical corps along with additional recent examples of change effected by former military surgeons. For those currently serving, these lessons illustrate the value of contributing wherever a need is recognized, and for those who have served in the past, they demonstrate the importance of having a continued voice with junior combat surgeons and the military leadership.