The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-07-25
lures applied, and operations of the
urgency performed


utmost urgency performed
After this second stage of inn edi-
ate treatment the wounded ma is
taken still farther back to what is
known rs the casualty clearing sta
ton. This is situated we'll ont of fire
for the enemy except by long-range
operating is done. The patient may
be held at the casualty clearing sta
ton for two or three DAYS, but the
rule is to %evacuate the cases as rapid
ly as possible to the base hospital,
or, in other words, the general hos
pital. Assuming this general hospital
to be one of the American Red Cross
units located back Of the British lines,
the wounded mans arrival there COM
pletes the fourth stage in his Journey
to the rear from the poin. where he
fell.
And now, having brought the
wounded man to the base hospital for
a more or less extended stay it is
necessary to multiply him a few hun.
dred or a few thousand times, as the
case may be, to give an adequate idea
Of the hospital itself in operation. 1t
isn't at all like the general hospitals
or the emergency hospitals you nay
know in any Of the large cities here
in America, where patients may ar
rive in ambulances, perhaps at the
rate of n an hour on 4 busy day,
or in contingents Of half a dozen or
Don the rare occasion Of some dis
astrous fire or accident. At the base
hospitals the wounded arrive by the
nical expression is. The conveys may
follow each other at close intervals,
moreover, and the schedules seem to
be addicted to the nocturnal habit
trains usually reach the base some
time in the middle of the night, when
the hospital staff is snatching q few
hours of rest after utilizing all OF the
daylight and adding a few hours at
each end in their work in the wards
and in the operating rooms. Al resi-
is broken, however ,as scon as a
fresh train of wounded is announced.
Usually the hospital staff sis in
formed some time in advance that a
convoy will arrive at a certain hour
so that the lad interim" sleep nay
be gagged accordingly. Then. just
before the train arrives. doctors and
other members Of the staff are called
from their respective billets by the
admonition, train is now pulling in"
in the sentry-like tones Of the night
wardmaster. There is hurried dress
ing; from near at hand comes the
sound of a bugle blowing the assem-
bly, for the enlisted men. There are
no shifts; every man goes on duty at
the call.
Right here it may be interesting to
say something about the train which
bears the wounded men from casualty
clearing station to base hospital. No
ramshackle, roughly ~improvised cars
are they. They spell travel de luxe
SO far as any such term is applicable
to the journeyings of mer whose
limbs are torn by shell or lacerated
by cold steel, and whose bodies are
racked by pain and fever. Every pos
sible comfort is provided and those
in charge show the most careful at
tention to the wounded men. For the
greater part of the journey from the
casualty clearing station, those among
the wounded who are able to sleep at
all do so. There are operating rooms
on the train which are equipped in
thoroughly up-to-date style. There
are separate sections for officers and
men, and for equipment.
We left the doctors getting into
their clothes and the bugle sounding
the assembly. When all have re.
sponded a certain number Of men are
detailed to the train, from which the
wounded are removed carefully but
quickly. After being taken off the
train the wounded are assigned to am
balances, each ambulance containing
occupants destined for certain wards,
depending on diagnosis of the case in
each instance and the capacity of the
ward. The diagnosis of the case is
contained on a card which has spaces
to be filled in by the surgeons at the
field ambulance and the casualty
clearing station. The cards are en-
closed in waterproof envelopes and
tied carefully to the buttons of the
patients tunics. The envelopes are
made so that cards cannot fall ou ex
cept under extraordinary conditions.
AS DON as the ambulances have
daliyorod tho cococ RI tho haco hoe.