A very large number of soldiers who returned from the front at the end of the Great War brought with them the signs of this terrible event, both psychologically and physically.
It is estimated that during the First World War about one million Italian soldiers were wounded. This very large number, however, is hardly surprising when due consideration is given to the devastating effects of the new weapons and the long periods spent by soldiers inside trenches.
Although behind the frontlines in the plains of Friuli and Veneto there were up to 200,000 beds (a high number when it is recalled that Austria-Hungary had only a few more), wounded soldiers who arrived in field hospitals often faced complications, even fatal ones. At the beginning of the century in fact medicine and surgery still had many shortcomings and hygiene and sanitary conditions, especially during operations, were horrible. The biggest problem was that of infections. In fact antibiotics did not yet exist and any wound, even the slightest one, could become something much more serious. Quite often those who were transferred to hospitals from the battlefields were already suffering from infection or from gas gangrene. If the wound happened to be on one’s limb, the only solution was amputation. Those who were instead hit in the abdomen, in their chest or in their head had very little chance of survival.
