MEDICAL CORPS PRAISED

Southland Times, Issue 25025, 10 April 1943, Page 5

MEDICAL CORPS PRAISED

Splendid Record In New Guinea (Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 11 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 improvization rather than elaborate equipment are the main factors in saving life.” This comment is made by The Sydney Morning Herald’s New Guinea war correspondent discussing the splendid record of the Allied Army Medical service in the New Guinea campaigns. Throughout the fighting surgeons in the forward areas worked in canvas theatres, on floors inches deep in mud and with incessant rain dripping through leaking tents. Lighting was from Jeep headlamps around which a myriad of insects flew, but despite 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 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 day time and at night usually became infested y/ith rats. In the high country the nights are bitterly cold. With the heat of the day followed by cold nights and with clothing always wet and usually unwashed, many soldiers had to be 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 were operated on. Every case was serious and urgent. The medical personnel were divided into day and night shifts, but usually the pressure of work was such that shifts overlapped heavily. Many of the staff suffered from malaria. THE WORST NIGHT

Perhaps the worst night recorded at this station was 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, despite 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 injections of blood serum. The donors were likely to be • suffering from malaria, but as this disease takes 10 days to develop and patients would certainly have died without 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 a “makeshift” variety, supplies of essential stores were always adequate. No difficulties were permitted to interfere with the passage of these supplies. Medical men, who today are analysing the lessons learned in the campaigns, declare that a regular supply of stores was vital to the success attained.