H. Winnett Orr

H. Winnett Orr (March 17, 1877 – October 11, 1956) was an orthopedic surgeon who was born in Pennsylvania, raised and lived the rest of his life in Nebraska. More than any other person, Orr was responsible for the invention of plaster casts method for the treatment of broken bones.

Hiram Winnett Orr was born in West Newton, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 1877, and grew up in Nebraska. After attending the University of Nebraska from 1892 to 1895, he was accepted to the University of Michigan medical school during his junior year. He received his M.D. from Michigan in 1899, and returned to Nebraska to set up practice in Lincoln. In 1911, Orr became the superintendent of the Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital.

When the United States entered World War I, Orr became a Major in the Medical Reserve Corps of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Before going to France, Orr worked alongside Dr. Alexis Carrel at the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital at Cardiff in Wales. Carrel had pioneered the treatment of wounds with the expectation that infection was inevitable without proper care, and had helped create an antiseptic called the Carrel-Dakin solution.

While in France, Orr took the Carrel treatment further by cleaning wounds, packing them with petroleum soaked gauze (to prevent sticking), and then setting the fracture and immobilizing it with plaster-soaked bandages that would harden quickly. The results were visible within as little as three weeks, with no infection present after the primary cast was removed. Dr. Orr was credited by the British Medical Research Council as being one of three American physicians to pioneer the technique.

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