by Dr. Dick Hillis M i k e ’ s e y e s opened slowly. As the girl in white followed his gaze, she could see he was trying to locate himself. Little wonder! Just 59 minutes earlier an ear- shattering explosion had sent him sprawling into the muck of the rice paddy. His last terrifying thought was, “ The V.C. got me. I’m dying in Viet Nam.” But now a blue-eyed nurse stood at his side talking quietly to him. To Mike her voice sound ed muted, like the far-away echo o f sweet music. He must be dreaming or delirious. Slowly Mike ran his left hand over clean white sheets. No, he wasn ’ t dreaming—he knew he was alive. What miracle, he wondered, had landed him in this clean quiet room? The shrapnel had made raw meat of his foot and upper right leg, but Mike felt no pain. Sud denly what the nurse was saying awakened his numbed brain, “You are going to make it, Mike. Don’t worry. You are going to make it.” That was all Mike needed to know. He closed his eyes and slept. Mike, like 97% of all those wounded in Viet Nam, was going to make it. An impressive 84% will go back on duty because our soldier boys are receiving the best medical care ever given any sol diers in any war.
In Mike’s case, the sound of the exploding shell had hardly died away before the cry, “Medic!” brought help to the wounded man. First the medic gave him a shot of morphine. It would keep him from going mad with the fiery pain, should he come to before reaching the hospital. Then the corpsman skillfully used cotton and bandages to stop the blood flow and keep him alive while they waited for the flying ambu lance. Just nine minutes after the platoon leader called headquar ters for the “ Dust-off” to evacu ate his wounded man, the beauti ful bird with the big red cross was on the ground. Within seven more minutes, Mike was at a bat talion aid station. There, under a tent, doctors started fluid and plasma flowing into his body to replace the blood lost in the rice paddy. Thirteen minutes later, Mike was on the operating table at the big field hospital in Saigon. Two doctors worked swiftly and effi ciently to save his leg. When the doctors sign the orders, he will be placed on a huge silver jet and flown half-way around the world to a hospital close to his home. When treatment is complete, Mike will walk out of that hospital with his right leg only ten per cent less efficient than his left, thanks to all the armed forces are doing . . . to save a soldier.
A P R IL, 1968
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