JUNGLE SURGERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24555, 10 April 1943, Page 7

JUNGLE SURGERY

TREATING CASUALTIES. MEDICAL CORPS' FINE WORK (Special Australian Correspondent) (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) SYDNEY. April 9 "Probably never in the whole history of war have medical men worked under such conditions. Seldom has it been demonstrated so forcibly that sheer skill and improvisation rather than elaborate equipment are the main factors in saving lives." This comment is made by the war correspondent in New Guinea of the Sydney Morning Herald, discussing the splendid record of the Allied Army medical services in the New Guinea campaigns. Throughout the fighting surgeons in forward areas have worked in canvas "theatres," on floors inches deep in mud and with incessant rain dripping through leaking tents. Lighting has. been from jeep headlamps, around which myriad insects have flown. Primitive Conditions But in spite of the primitive conditions it is claimed that no cases were lost which would have survived in the aseptic atmosphere of the most modern hospital. With only native bearers to

transport the wounded men, it was found necessary to establish field hospitals right behind the shifting battle line. The native grass huts which served as hospitals were cool in the daytime, but at night usually became infested with rats. In the high country the nights are bitterly cold. With the heat of the day followed by cold nights, and with their clothing always wet and usually unwashed, many soldiers bad to bo treated for skin complaints. In the heavy fighting around Buna the surgeons did their work at field dressing stations, within sound of the actual battle. At one such small station 338 wounded men wore operated on—every case serious and urgent Difficulties Overcome The medical personnel were divided into day and night shifts, but usually the pressure of work was such that the shifts overlapped heavily. Many of the staff suffered from malaria. Perhaps the worst night recorded at this station was on January 21, when 10 inches of rain fell. Thirty battle casualties were admitted after dark. During the storm a large surgical tent, containing 20 seriously wounded men, collapsed into mud that was inches deep. Within two hours the tent had been re-erected and the wounded made comfortable, with dry bedding and clothing. By morning, in spite of the storm and the additional interruption of two air raids, all 30 battle casualties had been operated on. Blood transfusions were given at such stations to patients too weak for the injection of the blood serum. Donors were likely to be suffering from malaria, but as tliis disease takes 10 days to develop and the patients would certainly have died without the transfusions. the risk of infection had to be accepted The percentage of men who died of wounds was extraordinarily low. While much of the medical equipment was of the "makeshift" variety, supplies of essential stores were always adequate No difficulties were permitted to interfere with the passage of these supplies. Medical men who to-day are analysing the lessons to be learned in the campaigns state that the regular supply of stores was vital to the success attained. LOST OPPORTUNITIES HOLDING POLICY CRITICISED CANBERRA, April 9 "Let us hope the Pacific will not become the front where the United Nations lost the war," said the Prime Minister, Mr. J. Curtin, in a special statement supplementing one by General Mac Arthur on the occasion of the first anniversary of the fall of Batan Peninsula. Mr. Curtin's statement virtually was a strong denunciation of the United Nations plan of a holding war in the Pacific and was the Prime Minister's first criticism of Allied grand strategy since the Casablanca Conference in January decided on its "beat Hitler first" policy. His statement continued: "The anniversary of the fall of Batan is a sad reminder that the Pacific has become a front of lost opportunities. The United Nations successively failed to establish a rallying point in the Philippines, at Singapore, in the Netherlands East Indies and at Rabaul. The flood of aggression has flowed to the verges of the last main base in The South-west Paci lie "In their advance the Japanese have been highly vulnerable to counter-at-tacks, and golden opportunities have been missed to deal them some heavy blows. As a result they have been allowed to consolidate and their defeat will now he a longer'and harder task. "Australia has shown ready willingness to co-operate in other war theatres at considerable risk to her own security. Others have decreed that Germany must be beaten first. We must therefore exert every endeavour to ensure that the Pacific does not become the lost front. Batan and Singapore stand as warnings to the United Nations. They have a symbolism for the future too significant to be forgotten."