Medic: Saving Lives - From Dunkirk to Afghanistan
Page 47
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. The Black Scalpel, Geoffrey Parker (William Kimber, 1968).
22. The Battle for Walcheren, by J. O. Forfar. Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1995.
Chapter 7: Bravest of the Brave
1. All letters and personal accounts quoted here are from the Harden family archive, collected by Eric’s daughter Julia Wells and lodged at the Royal Marine Museum, Portsmouth. The authors are grateful to Mrs Wells for her invaluable assistance with this chapter.
2. Maas, in German and Dutch.
3. She must have imagined that he would be going into battle in the same way as he had on D-Day. In fact, as he told her in a letter, he went by ship from Tilbury to Ostend and reached his unspecified destination after ‘seventeen hours on the train, the rest by lorry. The train had wood seats and no steam, very cold.’
4. Personal account, written 1995.
5. A Doctor’s War, Aidan MacCarthy (Grub Street, 1979).
Part III: THE FALKLANDS WAR
Chapter 8: A Long Way from Home
1. Private memoir. RAMC archive.
2. British Achievement in the Art of Healing, John Langon-Davies (Pilot Press, 1946): RAMC archive.
3. See Chapter 5.
4. The acronym stood for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
5. 1973 in Britain.
6. Spearhead Assault, John Geddes (Arrow Books, 2008).
7. JN interview, 2008.
8. They were named in 1690 after Lord Falkland, financial backer of the Welfare, the first merchant ship to land there. He was also treasurer of the Royal Navy and later First Lord of the Admiralty.
9. Personal diary and JN interview, 2008.
10. The Scars of War, Hugh McManners (HarperCollins, 1994).
11. From Above All, Courage: Personal Stories from the Falklands War, Max Arthur (Cassell, 2002). Plus JN interview, 2008.
12. Colonel Paul Parker: Afghanistan dissertation, 2007.
13. See next chapter.
14. Quoted in Arthur, Above All, Courage.
15. The Red and Green Life Machine: A Diary of the Falklands Field Hospital, Rick Jolly (Red and Green Books, 2007).
16. JN interview, 2008.
17. RAMC journal, Vol. 153, Supplement 1, plus JN interview, 2008.
18. Captain David Hart Dyke of HMS Coventry. From his Four Weeks in May (Atlantic Books, 2007).
19. Sod That for a Game of Soldiers, Mark Eyles-Thomas (Kenton Publishing, 2007). Extracts from Sod That for a Game of Soldiers by Mark Eyles-Thomas reproduced by permission of Kenton Publishing.
20. According to Captain John Burgess, medical officer of 3 Para, ‘the trench foot was horrendous and every bit as bad as people made out. It’s caused by immersion of feet in cold water. It’s bloody painful, with huge burning sensations in your feet, especially if you take your boots off, and your feet swell and then you can’t get your boots back on. I was giving people morphine for the pain, but even that was ineffective. It’s debilitating immediately and also potentially for years afterwards. The vast majority of men had it to some extent. It could have had a really serious effect if the fighting had gone on for much longer. It could have affected the battle for the Falklands. Most definitely, without a doubt, yes.’
21. The same thing – Paras ‘tab’, Marines ‘yomp’. ‘TAB’ stands for ‘tactical advance to battle’.
22. From Forgotten Voices of the Falklands, Hugh McManners (Ebury Press, 2007).
23. JN interview, 2007.
24. Hart Dyke, Four Weeks in May.
Chapter 9: Battle Stations
1. From Hugh McManners, The Scars of War (HarperCollins, 1994) & JN interview, 2008.
2. Private account, plus JN interview, 2008.
3. Forgotten Voices of the Falklands, Hugh McManners (Ebury Press, 2007).
4. From McManners, The Scars of War.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. See Chapter 3.
Chapter 10: Fire Down Below
1. Spearhead Assault, John Geddes (Arrow, 2007).
2. Forgotten Voices of the Falklands, Hugh McManners (Ebury Press, 2007).
3. Interview on Kiss the Children, broadcast on the British Forces Broadcasting Service.
4. Above All, Courage, Max Arthur (Cassell, 2002).
5. Ibid.
6. Personal account and JN interview, 2008.
7. The Red and Green Life Machine, Rick Jolly (Red and Green Books, 2007).
8. JN interview, 2007.
9. Austrian Formula One racing driver, badly burnt and scarred in a crash at the 1976 German grand prix.
10. Total in Ajax Bay and those shipped the day before to the sick bays of RN vessels in the Sound.
11. JN interview, 2008.
Chapter 11: Gaining the High Ground
1. Private Ernest Douglas. Quoted in The Soldier’s War, Richard Van Emden (Bloomsbury, 2008).
2. Sod That for a Game of Soldiers, Mark Eyles-Thomas. Kenton Publishing, 2007.
3. Above All, Courage, Max Arthur (Cassell, 2002).
4. JN interview, 2008.
5. JN interview, 2008.
6. JN interview and Falklands 25th Anniversary issue of RAMC journal, 2007.
7. EylesThomas, Sod That for a Game of Soldiers.
8. Not his real name.
9. Not his real name.
10. From Arthur, Above All, Courage., The authors are grateful for permission to quote from this material.
11. Ibid.
12. Personal diary and JN interview, 2008.
13. Argentinian losses were 649 dead and 1,068 wounded.
14. Scars of War, Hugh McManners (HarperCollins, 1994).
15. Ibid.
16. Falklands 25th Anniversary issue of RAMC journal, 2007.
17. McManners, Scars of War.
18. In a joint paper in the RAMC journal two years later, three senior army doctors were in no doubt that tourniquets had been important in dealing with men in danger of bleeding to death from severe limb wounds. They recommended sanctioning the practice. But another RAMC officer, Colonel R. Scott, professor of military surgery, vehemently disagreed. ‘I believe that more limbs and more lives will be lost by the unskilled application of tourniquets… Our first-aid training should continue to stress the value of direct pressure for the control of haemorrhage.’ RAMC journal, June 1984.
Part IV: IRAQ
Chapter 12: Bitter Pills
1. Private diary and JN interview, 2008.
2. Thunder and Lightning, Charles Allen (HMSO, 1991).
3. JN interview, 2008.
4. See Chapter 5.
5. American academic Francis Fukuyama argued in a famous paper in 1992 that ‘what we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution, and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.’
6. ‘Emergency Care in Kosovo’, by Tim Hodgetts and Gary Kenward. Emergency Nurse magazine, February 2000.
7. JN interview, 2008.
8. From Blood, Heat and Dust, Lt-Col. David Rew. Private publication.
9. Quoted in ‘In Search of Victor Horsley’, by Lt-Col. Paul Parker. RAMC journal, 2006.
Chapter 13: Under Siege
1. Dusty Warriors, Richard Holmes (HarperCollins 2006).
2. JN interview, 2008.
3. Holmes, Dusty Warriors.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Personal account from In Foreign Fields, Dan Collins (Monday Books, 2007).
7. Personal account sent to the authors.
Chapter 14: A Woman’s Place
1. Soldier magazine, June 2006.
2. JN interview, 2008.
3. Her personal story has appeared in interviews in various newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph (16 December 2006), and in the book In Foreign Fields, Dan Collins (Monday Books, 2007).
4. JN and
TR interview, 2008.
5. Interview with Sally Veck, Daily Mail, November 2007.
6. A private in the Duke of Lancaster’s was historically known as a Kingsman, a rank derived from the King’s Regiment, which had joined with the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment and the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment to form the Duke of Lancaster’s a year earlier, in 2006.
7. Report of inquest, BBC News, February 2008.
8. JN interview, 2008.
Part V: AFGHANISTAN
Chapter 15: On Afghanistan’s Plains…
1. The pyjama-like trousers and loose shirt worn by Afghan farmers.
2. JN interview, 2008.
3. JN interview, 2008.
4. See Chapter 1.
5. JN interview, 2008.
6. Quoted in 3 Para, Patrick Bishop (HarperPress, 2007).
7. Ibid.
Chapter 16: Where Angels Fear to Tread…
1. JN interview, 2008.
2. JN interview, 2008.
3. JN interview, 2008.
4. JN interview, 2007.
5. Defence News, 8 January 2008.
6. Quoted in 3 Para, Patrick Bishop (HarperPress, 2007).
7. This was the conclusion of the subsequent inquest into Wright’s death. The official MoD line was that the corporal somehow set off the mine himself and the Chinook was not responsible. But 3 Para commander Colonel Stuart Tootal told the inquest that, in his opinion, there was a definite causal link between the helicopter and the detonation.
8. Accounts vary about the timing. These fit the known facts.
9. The winches and hoists on all Chinooks had been withdrawn from service for a routine inspection after a fault was discovered. In returning the winches to service, priority was given to search-and-rescue helicopters in the UK rather than those in use in Afghanistan. The inquiry report added that it was ‘disturbing that, in an area of operations where there was such a marked mine threat, there were no UK-equipped, rotary-wing air frames that could provide immediate casualty extraction. If an air frame with hoist capability had been available immediately, the casualty count may well have been less and the need to continue to move in the vicinity of the incident would have been significantly reduced.’ Sunday Telegraph, 13 January 2008.
10. Inquests were held by the Oxfordshire coroner because it was to Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire that bodies from Afghanistan and Iraq were flown home.
Chapter 17: Shifting Sands
1. JN interview, 2008.
2. JN interview, 2008.
3. JN interview, 2008.
4. JN interview, 2008.
5. Often maybe, but not always. In 2007. Lt-Col. Paul Parker complained publicly that there had been no serviceable CT scanner for a year and that the blood-testing laboratory had had to be closed for four hours during the hottest part of the day because the air-conditioning system could not cope.
6. Blood, Heat and Dust, Lt-Col. David Rew. Private publication.
7. JN interview, 2008.
8. JN interview, 2008.
9. Parker’s full list is: aortic cross-clamping during resuscitative laparotomy; simple ligation of any major vessel tear; liver laceration packing; small intestinal perforation stapling; colonic perforation control with terylene tape; arterial injuries shunted/ligated, plus fasciotomy; venous injury ligation; bladder ruptures catheterized and drained; pancreatic bed leaks multiply drained; peritoneal soilage copiously irrigated and contained; abdomen temporarily and/or rapidly closed; visceral compartment syndrome treated with plastic sheet or IV-fluid-bag closure; rapid emergency thoracotomy; non-anatomically stapled lung resection; pulmonary tractotomy; circumhilar rotation for lung haemorrhage control; e-masse lobectomy; skin staple closure of cardiac wounds; en-masse closure of chest wall muscles; patch closure of thoracic wounds (using an IV-fluid bag); intracranial bleeding – emergent arrest and control; adequate early exposure via 4-into-1 burr hole technique; intracranial haematoma evacuation/limitation of contamination; CNS superficial bone/ metal fragment removal; CNS infection control using early antibiotic therapy; CNS infection prevention with primary dural and scalp closure; post-surgical swelling control with decompressive craniectomy; femoral fracture control with rapid unilateral frame external fixation or Thomas splint; unstable pelvic binding or external fixation; junctional zone bleed control with urinary catheter tamponade; articular fracture temporization with bridging external fixator; fracture reduction with approximate alignment; pin site skin tenting prevention with wide skin incisions; soft-tissue damage dealt with rapid primary debridement; contamination minimized by pulsed jet lavage; musculoskeletal infection control using appropriate antibiotics; compartment syndrome prevention – wide area fasciotomy; soft-tissue coverage temporary dressing; primary wound management with vacuum drainage packs. From ‘Lessons Learnt in Afghanistan’, paper by Lt-Col. Paul Parker, Major Nigel Tai, Lt-Col. Peter Hill and Lt-Col. Alan Ray.
Part VI: AFTERMATH
Chapter 18: Scars That Will Not Heal
1. The Times, January 2008.
2. Interview. The Times, December 2006.
3. The Times, January 2008.
4. See Chapter 17.
5. Independent, August 2007.
6. See Preface.
7. JN interview, 2008.
8. ‘Inside Madness’, by Steven Hughes. British Medical Journal, 1990.
9. Quoted in When Daddy Came Home, Barry Turner and Tony Rennell (Hutchinson, 1995).
10. Above All, Courage, Max Arthur (Cassell, 2002).
11. JN interview, Sunday Express.
12. Daily Telegraph, June 2008.
13. ‘Somewhere along the Road’– a Rick Kemp song sung by Maddy Prior. Lyrics from ‘Somewhere Along the Road’ by Rick Kemp from the Album Year by Maddy Prior reproduced by permission of Park records www.parkrecords.com
References
Adkin, Mark, Goose Green, Cassell, 1992.
Allen, Charles, Thunder & Lightning, HMSO, 1991.
Arthur, Max, Above All, Courage, Cassell, 2002.
Bishop, Patrick, 3 Para, HarperPress, 2007.
Collins, Dan, In Foreign Fields, Monday, 2007.
Cooksey, Jon, 3 Para – Mount Longdon, Pen & Sword, 2004.
Craig, Chris, Call For Fire, John Murray, 1995.
Daniel, Paul, Surgeon At Arms, Heinemann, 1958.
Dunlop, E.E., The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop, Nelson, 1986.
Eddy (et al), Paul, The Falklands War, Andre Deutsch, 1982.
Eyles-Thomas, Mark, Sod That for a Game of Soldiers, Kenton Publishing, 2007.
Fergusson, James, A Million Bullets, Bantam Press, 2008.
Geddes, John, Spearhead Assault, Arrow, 2007.
Hall, Matthew, A Doctor at War, Images Publishing, 1995.
Hardie (Dr), Robert, The Burma Siam Railway, IWM, 1983.
Harrison, Mark, Medicine and Victory, OUP, 2004
Holland, James, Together We Stand, HarperCollins, 2005.
Holmes, Richard, Dusty Warriors, HarperPerennial, 2007.
Jolly, Rick, The Red and Green Life Machine: A Diary of the Falklands Field Hospital, Red and Green Books, 2007.
Laffin, John, Combat Surgeons, Sutton, 1999.
MacArthur, Brian, Surviving the Sword, Time Warner, 2005.
MacCarthy, Aidan, A Doctor’s War, Grub Street, 1979.
MacNalty, Arthur, Medical Services in War, HMSO, 1968.
Mather, Carol, When the Grass Stops Growing, Leo Cooper, 2007.
McManners, Hugh, Forgotten Voices of the Falklands, Ebury Press, 2007.
_____, The Scars of War, HarperCollins, 1994.
Parker, Geoffrey, The Black Scalpel, William Kimber, 1968.
Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh, Dunkirk, Viking, 2006.
Shephard, Ben, After Daybreak, Pimlico, 2006.
Smith, Colin, Singapore Burning, Viking, 2005.
Smyth, Sir John, The Will to Live, Cassell, 1970.
Starns, Penny, Nurses At War, Sutton, 2000.
Taylor, Eric, Combat Nurse, Rober
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_____, Front-Line Nurse, Robert Hale, 1997.
Watts, J.C., Surgeon At War, George Allen & Unwin, 1955.
Weston (foreword by), Simon, The Falklands War – A day by day account, Marshall Cavendish, 2007.
Index
1st Battalion South Lancashires 53
1st Bucks Battalion, Ox and Bucks Light Infantry 45–7
2 Paras 181–2, 187- see also Parachute Regiment
3 Commando 172
3 Paras 167–70, 217, 225, 303, 305, 309, 312- see also Parachute Regiment
6 Commando 144–5
6th British Field Ambulance 41
9/11 251
10th Casualty Clearing Station 47–8
11th Casualty Clearing Station 50
16 Air Assault Brigade 8
16 Field Ambulance 201–2
24 Close Support Medical Squadron 293
45 Commando 140, 144
A Company, Parachute Regiment 313, 320- see also Parachute Regiment
A Troop 141, 145–6, 150
abdominal wounds 118–19
Adams, Corporal F. C. 50
Aeromed C17s 341
Afghan National Army (ANA) 2, 6
Afghanistan 1–10, 299–370- see also Camp Bastion; Taliban
danger from RPGs, 17
Falklands and 240, 383
‘real’ world never far away 355
surgical priorities 34, 357–8
Afrika Korps 84
Aitken, Dr 113
Ajax Bay
designated hospital site 174, 175, 178–80
hospital in action 186–9, 191, 196–8, 202, 209–10, 212–13, Argentinians treated there 238, packing up 234, proud boast of medics there 238, times changing 242
Al-Amarah 257, 262, 267, 288, 290
Al Qaeda 251
Alamein 85, 92, 94, 102
albatrosses 169
Aldershot 283