In today’s world cosmetic surgery is very common. Whether it’s a young lady seeking to enlarge her breasts or a Hollywood star hoping to maintain his youth even longer, procedures of this nature are hardly thought twice about, which is a far cry from how things used to be.
The practice of altering an individual’s appearance to suit some type of medical need has been around for centuries,
dating back as far as 800 BC. In fact, many ancient civilizations practiced this type of medicine throughout the course of history. Nonetheless, plastic surgeries as we know them today are largely rooted to 20th century England during World War II, and to a very unique club.
In today’s world cosmetic surgery is commonplace. Whether it’s a young woman seeking to enlarge her breasts or a Hollywood celebrity hoping to maintain his youthful appearance even longer, procedures of this nature are hardly thought twice about, which is a far cry from how things used to be.
In the first half of the 20th century, cosmetic surgery was still in the earliest stages of infancy. Many procedures had not even been thought of yet, let alone perfected and approved by medical boards. Many others, including those such as rhinoplasties that had been performed by civilizations dating back hundreds of years, had not been successfully adapted to meet modern standards of medicine.
World War II changed all of this, however, by creating a need for cosmetic surgery. Before there were the rich and famous and the vain and beautiful who hoped to alter their appearance, there was the Guinea Pig Club. This group was made up of patients severely injured during the war who opted to serve as test cases for the newest, untested forms of medicine at the time in hopes of regaining what they had lost during combat.
Dr. Archibald McIndoe was a surgeon from New Zealand who worked for the Royal Air Force during World War II. He was stationed at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Sussex, England, where he treated a number of soldiers who arrived at the facility with extremely serious injuries, many of which were burns suffered in aircraft.
The club started out in 1941 with 39 members and grew to 649 members by the end of the war. To be a member, one had to have served as an airman and gone through at least 10 surgical procedures, which was not uncommon due to the fact that because so little was known about cosmetic surgery at the time, it commonly took multiple procedures to achieve success.
During this time period, McIndoe was able to perfect, understand and even invent additional forms of treatment for burn victims and others needing plastic surgeries. The club itself played a large role in his ability to achieve this success, as it helped facilitate keeping patients’ morale up and allowing them to have companions and lead a normal life while being treated.
The Guinea Pig Club is still in existence today and still meets in East Grinstead. By most recent estimates, some 200 members are still alive and 16 members have written books about their experiences. Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II, is the current president of the group.
Perhaps the most lasting impact of the so-called “guinea pigs” outside of the procedures perfected by McIndoe is the understanding that patients undergoing cosmetic surgery for medical reasons as the result of an injury or disease need support in easing back into every day life, which is something that continues to carry over into this type of medicine today.
