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The Norwood School

Aggh! Watch out Akobuike!

Yr 11 History trip to the Old Operating Theatre.

The Year 11 history students braved the crowds of London Bridge and a very steep wooden staircase as up the Old Operating Theatre near Waterloo recently.  They were there to find out more about surgery during the 19th Century.  The operating theatre used to be part of St Thomas's Hospital and had a big gallery all the way around it, where we all sat.  In the past, as many as 150 medical students used to sit there to watch operations taking place.  Amongst other things, we learnt about  how operations were performed before the use of anaesthetics.  Akobuike was volunteered by Ms Richardson to be a 'pretend' patient for the afternoon, pictured above waiting to have his leg amputated, one of the frequent operations that took place in the 19th Century without an anaesthetic!  We were also shown some interesting looking surgical instruments that definitely had the boys, in particular, wincing as they found out about a procedure called a lithotomy - a particularly uncomfortable operation to remove kidney stones. It was great fun as well as being incredibly educational.