Medical Care in WWII: Organized and Effective

I put together more of my research on military medicine today, and it really is amazing how organized it was. In fact, while reading Fighting for Life: American Military Medicine in World War II (Albert E. Cowdrey) I came across these fascinating statistics: in the MTO, a quarter of those wounded in battle died before reaching treatment. However, of those who reached treatment, 96 percent lived, and of those who lived long enough to make it to hospitals, only 1.5 percent died. That says a lot for the efficiency and effectiveness of this system, especially compared to prior wars. (Think of the primitive medical treatment of the Civil War, for example.) Part of the large survival rates, however, can be attributed to the new discoveries of sulfanimide and penicillin that occurred just prior to the war, along with blood plasma and whole blood transfusions.

Here's how the chain of wounded evacuation worked: (the majority of my information is taken from this site, an extremely informative site about WWII combat medics)

1. A soldier is injured.

2. In less than a minute a telephone message is sent back to the forward Aid Station, about 300 to 1,000 yards behind the line. They send litter-bearers.

3. While waiting for the litter, the aid-man (medic) of the casualty’s company administers first aid—stopping the bleeding with sulfanilamide powder, bandaging, and giving wound pills (probably sulfanilamide) internally.

4. When the litter arrives, the casualty is carried to the nearest jeep—anywhere from 25 to 3,000 yards.

5. The casualty is rushed to the Aid Station two or three miles behind the line. The surgeon removes the first-aid bandage, makes a proper diagnosis and applies a more permanent bandage. Blood plasma and morphine are administered if needed (the latter only in severe cases). The patient is made comfortable and given coffee.

6. The casualty is taken to the clearing station, far in the rear, by ambulance. If his wounds are to his head, chest, abdomen, or thighbone (femur), then he receives emergency surgery at the field hospital. (Men who were only slightly wounded were treated at this point and returned to duty.)

7. Eventually (after several days’ stay in the field hospital tents, if surgery was necessary) the casualty arrives via ambulance at the evacuation hospital, where first-class attention is administered. If he’s likely to recover soon, then he remains there until he can return to duty.

8. If the casualty won’t recover soon, he’s sent to a general hospital, and then back home to the U.S.

Written in paragraph form, it was hard to get my mind around everything, so I turned it into this list. It's been helpful. I'm so glad there's a lot of information out there about WWII medicine--wow! My job hasn't been difficult, just really . . . involved.

*yawns* So ends another long afternoon of research. I just ordered the book Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. The guy who wrote it won the Pulitzer Prize for more than one of his other books, and this new one (it just came out this month) has great reviews. I stopped by Borders yesterday so I could look through it. The volume is pretty big, but it covers everything I need to know about for my novel. As a bonus, the narrative flows and it's easy to read. The Borders price was $35. Go figure. That store is SO elitist (hooray for liberalism). Luckily, I got it on Amazon for about $21, and it should be here on Thursday.

I have a bunch of books from the library that I'll probably end up buying, but I really don't need to purchase them until after November. A few of them are must-haves for revision--I can't keep re-checking them out of the library!

More updates to come soon. I'm thinking that I may not get my scene cards done until one or two days before NaNo starts.