SAVING LIVES

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22009, 10 April 1943, Page 5

SAVING LIVES

MEDICAL UNIT’S WORK I I ! J | | : j 1 ! . ’

GREAT DIFFICULTIES NEW GUINEA CONDITIONS (United Press Assn.— Eiec. Tel. Copyright) (Special Australian correspondent) 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. 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. 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 serious and urgent. Ten Inches of Rain 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 were 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. 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.