[ RadSafe ] When Madame Curie Went to War

[Cary Renquist]

I wasn't aware of this phase her interesting life...

Cary
--
Cary.renquist at ezag.com


This ACR article was pointed out in another listserver:
   After co-discovering radium and polonium, becoming history's first
two-time winner of the Nobel Prize, 
   and breaking the glass ceiling   at the legendary Sorbonne
University, what did Marie Curie do for an 
   encore? She brought the life-saving wonders of radiology to the front
lines of World War I Europe, almost 
   single-handedly transforming military medicine and saving untold
thousands of lives.



When Madame Curie Went to War
http://bit.ly/7eCaH6

"The use of the X-rays during the war saved the lives of many wounded
men; it also saved many from long suffering and lasting infirmity."
--Marie Curie

After co-discovering radium and polonium, becoming history's first
two-time winner of the Nobel Prize, and breaking the glass ceiling at
the legendary Sorbonne University, what did Marie Curie do for an
encore? She brought the life-saving wonders of radiology to the front
lines of World War I Europe, almost single-handedly transforming
military medicine and saving untold thousands of lives.

On this seventy-fifth anniversary year of Curie's death - and as allied
military operations continue in Iraq and Afghanistan - ACR Daily News
Scan recalls the contributions made some 90 years ago by this "mother of
atomic physics." Curie's bold, pioneering work in that most challenging
of arenas reminds us of the giants who gave birth to and nurtured our
profession, and continue to inspire us today.

When "the war to end all wars" erupted in 1914, Curie - then poised to
helm the Radium Institute in Paris - recognized that ambulatory
diagnostic X-ray technology could give military field hospitals the
ability to quickly and accurately diagnose injuries. Onlookers dismissed
her vision as overly ambitious, but Curie wouldn't take no for an
answer. The barriers she faced were many:

    * No Equipment. At the outset of hostilities, radiographic equipment
in France was scarce even in the best hospitals. Curie set two
objectives: To install permanent units in hospitals along the war zone
and to convert civilian vehicles into roving X-ray units that could
reach wounded soldiers along the ever-shifting lines of battle.
    * Little Funding. When French officials announced that the state's
coffers were nearly empty, Curie used the cash proceeds from her Nobel
prizes to buy war bonds, then sought additional funding from wealthy
female acquaintances. She even tapped French nobles to donate limousines
to create her fleet of "radiologic cars."
    * Meddling Bureaucracy. When the French government's tangle of red
tape threatened to immobilize Curie, she alternately charmed and cajoled
officials to cut her loose. Among the challenges: Gaining permission to
let women travel to the war-torn Eastern front. Against all odds, Curie
obtained approval for her volunteers. Curie traveled to the Front more
than 30 times during this four-year "war to end all wars."
    * Outdated Command. Curie understood that French medical officers
reporting to non-medical line officers guaranteed a substandard medical
outcome. To complicate matters, army personnel acted as gatekeepers to
medical supplies, and kept surgeons 35 or more miles from
battlefields-all with catastrophic effect. Curie encouraged change at
every level. 

Curie faced her own personal limitations. Though a gifted researcher,
she knew precious little about medical diagnostics or radiography.
Equally problematic, she had never so much as driven an automobile. To
get herself up to speed, she took cram courses in anatomy, became
proficient in radiography, and learned how to operate and repair motor
vehicles.

Curie set out to staff hospitals with radiologic technicians (or
''manipulatrices") by instituting a formal program of study at a Paris
hospital. She even trained and appointed as her first radiologic
assistant her 17-year-old daughter, Irene (who herself received a Nobel
Prize for Chemistry in 1935). By war's end, in 1919, Curie would train
more than 150 women - some nurses, some chambermaids - to operate
radiolographic equipment at the outposts that Curie herself set up.

In November 1914, Curie brushed aside warnings, fired up her prototype
"petite Curie" vehicle, and motored toward the Eastern Front. Her
courage was exceptional, as mechanized warfare was already inflicting
heavy losses that would eventually total some 10 million combat deaths
and 21 million wounded. Of the injured, almost 500,000 were amputees,
but many were able to live because of Curie's ambulatory services.

As Coppes and Arty R. Coppes-Zantinga note in "Silhouette: Marie Curie's
Contributions to Radiology During World War I," Curie placed mobile
X-ray units inside tents and rooms darkened with black-out curtains, and
powered the units with an electrical generator driven by car engine.
There, she and other radiographers examined and x-rayed the wounded. All
told, the future Nobel laureate equipped some 20 ''petites Curies',' 200
permanent radiology posts, and is credited with examining more than one
million war wounded.

Curie discussed her wartime experiences in her 1921 tome, ''Radiology in
War."

* Coppes and Coppes-Zantinga's article, "Silhouette: Marie Curie's
Contributions to Radiology During World War I," is found in Medical and
Pediatric Oncology 31:541-542 (1998).