WARREN HALSTEAD

AMID THE CHAOS of war, medical decisions were often made on the fly. Overwhelmed doctors and nurses would have to make instant decisions on who received attention and on what treatments, if any, they received.

During the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Warren James Halstead was forced to take medical matters into his own hands — literally. Wounded in the leg, the thirty-three-year-old father of seven was told by the harried medical team that there was no time to operate.

“Because there were so many casualties they were rushed, and were going to amputate his leg,” said Betty (Halstead) Lowry, Warren’s daughter. “He said no!, asked for a probe, and dug out the shrapnel himself, therefore saving his leg.”

The Hamilton man was sent home later in 1917. Sometime after his return, his wife died of Spanish influenza. This deadly flu would eventually claim millions of lives worldwide.

Halstead later remarried and lived until the age of eighty-six.