In her quintessential detective novel Green for Danger (1944, left), Christianna Brand composed a riveting who-done-it amidst the backdrop of a rural British World War II hospital. The local postman was rushed to surgery, but his delivering days were done after a mislabeled medical gas tank spelled the end. Drawing directly upon her volunteer experiences in the military hospitals during the war, Brand illuminated the safety hazards in amassing non-standardized gas cylinders (right). Already investigating this polychromatic puzzler in the United States, Paul M. Wood, M.D., Founder of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology and Secretary of the American Society of Anesthetists, led a coalition of physicians, hospitals, and industry groups who petitioned the United States National Bureau of Standards to recognize uniform color coding of medical gases in 1941. Providing wartime anesthesia in a military hospital was notoriously chaotic and complex with heterogeneous supplies. Thankfully, safety super-sleuth Wood was on the case. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois.)
In her quintessential detective novel Green for Danger (1944, left), Christianna Brand composed a riveting who-done-it amidst the backdrop of a rural British World War II hospital. The local postman was rushed to surgery, but his delivering days were done after a mislabeled medical gas tank spelled the end. Drawing directly upon her volunteer experiences in the military hospitals during the war, Brand illuminated the safety hazards in amassing non-standardized gas cylinders (right). Already investigating this polychromatic puzzler in the United States, Paul M. Wood, M.D., Founder of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology and Secretary of the American Society of Anesthetists, led a coalition of physicians, hospitals, and industry groups who petitioned the United States National Bureau of Standards to recognize uniform color coding of medical gases in 1941. Providing wartime anesthesia in a military hospital was notoriously chaotic and complex with heterogeneous supplies. Thankfully, safety super-sleuth Wood was on the case. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois.)
Melissa L. Coleman, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
