Here are some extracts from the instructions for applying the Thomas Splint. They were sent to the Principal Medical Officer for the Royal Air Force at Cranwell Air Academy for training officers and aircrew in August 1921 by the Squadron Leader (Medical Staff for Director of Medical Services) after the war, (Catalogue ref: AIR 2/136)
Transcript
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE APPLICATION OF THOMAS’S SPLINT
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The Thomas’s Outfit consists of-:
Stretcher. Flannel Bandages (6 yards), 3.
Blankets, 3. Triangular Bandages, 4
Thomas’s Splint (largest size). Dressings
Reversible Footpiece (Sinclair’s). Safety Pins.
Suspension Bar. Gooch Splinting (10” X 6” & 8” X 6”)
Personnel required:-
Operator 1. No.1 Assistant No.2. Assistant (if available)
When in use the splint is kept hung up. The five slings of flannel bandage are rolled round the inner bar of the splint, the leather is kept soft by saddle soap, and the iron bars are smeared with vaseline.
Indications for Application
- For all fractures of the thigh bone, except where there is an extensive wound in the upper part of thigh or buttock, which would interfere with the fitting of the ring.
- In severe fractures about the knee-joint or upper part of the tibia.
- In certain cases of extensive wounds of the fleshy part of thigh.
… [Detailed drill instructions were provided for the application of the splint]
APPLICATION OF THOMAS’S SPLINT [Labelled diagram with key]
- Warming
- Extension
- Modified Clove-Hitch over Boot
- Splint
- Fixation of leg
- Dressing of Wound of Thigh
- Gooch Splints and Triangular Bandages
- Figure-of-8 and Footpiece
- Spanish Windlass
- Pad in ring
- Suspension Bar
- Hot Water Bottles and Blankets