Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-12-31
SPLENDID WORK OF
THE MAINE MEDICAL
UNIT AT HALIFAX

captain William II. Goodwin, quar-
~ternaster with the Maine Medical
Unit which passed nearly three weeks
with the suffering people Of Halifax
and has recently returned from
that stricken city, has an intensely
interesting and vivid story Of their
experience, when You can find
him with enough spare minutes to re-
late it. And the very first thing the
captain will say to you will be UNI
stinted praise for the Maine doctors
and nurses and other Maine men who
went 50 promptly and gave 50 UNI
sparingly of their time and knowledge
for the relief of the unattended in
jured-"and not a single call made
upon the Maine doctors, day Or night,
was unanswered"
Captain Goodwin and the Maine
Medical Unit returned home after II
days of continuous service, working in
both hospitals and by the roadsides, in
! wrecks Of private residences and stores
anywhere the call might take them.
They handled hundreds of cases-in-
Guiding, it is hard but true to say,
some terribly botched up cases by 9th
er surgeons. For instance a Maine
surgeon treated a little girl reported as
having had first aid for a sprained
ankle and found a compound fracture,
Another little girl brought in, with her
face a mass of pus under the band-
ages, was etherized and seven pieces Of
window glass removed from her fore
head, imbedded in the skull.
The Maine men returning home
wick; Capt. ]. II. Murphy Of Dexter:
1t. w. J. O'Connor of Augusta: 1t. +.
G.. A. Stetson Of Brunswick: DR.. Thorn
las Foster of Portland; Or. Harold
tGarcelon of Lewiston; Dr, a. a.
Stott of Woolwich; Capt. VIM. z.
Goodwin and Robert Morton Of Au-
gusta.
Captain Goodwin says the will, de-
termination and pluck Of the Maine
crowd was wonderful. They arrived
at Halifax after a tedious journey,
old n hungry. 10 hours late, but
within one hour the nurses were in he
hospitals and the doctors at work.
! Quarters we're found for the men at
the Halifax Club. Cots and blankets
were BROKE out" of the cars and
# quarters were EeduS Wien lhc tIith
doctors got a chance to use them.
General Presson, Private Secretary /.
NJ. Hart and Capt. Goodwin soon To-
Gated the Ladies College-almost in
ruins-for the ain Unit hospital and
had the broken windows boarded up
and the debris removed almost be
fore the Canadians had consented to
its use.
The building was divided into Wards A,
b. G. y. F.. and T and by Tuesday noon
after their arrival the Maine hospital had
is patients. Two hundred beds were inn
mediately set up and a 5c0-bed supply was
ready for instant use. The hospital had
an emergency dressing room and an OPP
Grating room in charge of Or. Garcelon;
also two emergency dressing stations out
side. From Is 70 81 patients were treated
daily. The men worked like beavers and
not a single call was received out from
two to FIVE Of them were on their feet to
volunteer to answer it-and that in the
face Of some Of the calls having been re
fused BY other units.
What do you thing Of an old and injured
man suffering from erysipelas being sent
out OF a hospital because they feared he
would die there. Well, the poor old man
was taken in BY the Maine doctors and
when they left Halifax. instead Of dying.
he was able to sit up and feed himself.
The Maine party left 50 patients in their
hospital when they turned 1t over to the
local people. The mos. they had at one
time was 17 cases. One man was dis
charged the day before they left who had
lost his wife and II children: one child
being left. A woman discharged the same
day had lost husband and five children.
Both had lost every cents worth Of prop
erty-and so it was with thousands o.
families. We were told that records
showed but 40 Canadian soldiers so far to-
tally blinded in the war, but halifax a
over 80 cases and from 400 to 500 cases Of
loss Of one eye, some Of whom would
eventually lose the other,
Captain Goodwin thinks the estimate of
! $50 for the dead Is too low, as calls and
* Ia WA %F+y