Evening star., 1945-04-01
Feeling Abused?
Hospital Gives Course
In Humility
By Keith Wheeler,

North American newspaper Aulance.
AIEA HEIGHTS NAVAL HOSPITAL,
Honolulu.-In case anybody feels the
need Of it, this is the place to take .
short course in humility.
It doesn't make much difference In
which part OF this hospital you take the
first lesson. Keep going and you get the
full treatment.
Always remember that five weeks ago
these men were young and strong, the
cream of q generation.
In the dentists chair is man without
q face. The shrapnel sliced downward
striking at the bridge Of his nose. It
took away his nose, smashed against the
bony structure of his upper jaw and
palate and carried the whole works out
through his lower jaw. breaking the
lower in three places. They can build
him . new nose but nothing win re-
place the basic skull structure that has
gone They'll glue the lower jaw back
together and they'll build him face
he can use, but it won't be much Of q
face and, having no bone to support it,
lt WOli NC uluSh SOOO W AAAo
family won't recognize him.
A kid know was in the line at the
ships service store today. He was buy
ing candy which, he explained, he
needed for night rations. He's hungry
all the time, which is excusable con-
sidering that he once weighed 100
pounds but now weighs 30. One Of his
legs is gone below the knee, the other
is gone eight inches above the knee.
He was happy today and proud Of
himself because, IS he explained, he
has learned how to get out Of bed and
into the wheel chair and from that to
the toilet without assistance.
Go down to the ward where the
paralysis cases lie in sanitary, nearly
motionless rows-long rows. Here Is an
18-year-old youngster laughing over in
the corner. Go and stand there and
listen to his delighted gurgling while
he explains and demonstrates to the
nurse that he has just succeeded in
wiggling the forefinger of his right
hand. That's all he can move but for
five weeks he hasn't been able to move
even that.
Let DR.. Virgil Caster OF Boston take
you through his eye ward. where he
has more than 100 cases who are par
TALLY or totally blind.
Watch him get kid out Of his bed,
urging him gently to take his first
steps in the dark. The first steps are
hard to take but he needs to learn.
He'll walk in the dark from now on.
Did you ever watch Q man five weeks
blind shave himself, or write q letter?
It's an educational sight.
White phosphorous Is . combustible
explosive. When it strikes flesh, it burns
and keeps on burning through skin and
muscle and bone. There's . 21-year-old
in the burn ward who caught the burst
Of q white PHOSPHORUS mortar in his
back three weeks ago.
They doused his burns nr& with
copper sulphate to extinguish the tiny
hres that burned, burrowed deeper, ana
consumed his nesh. Then they replaced
that with vet saline dressings.
Four days later they found that he
was still burning. They put the flre out
again. "A week after that they discov-
cred another spot where the flesh was
smoldering away. His pain was such
that they had to keep him under NOR
phinc constantly.
I talked to him this afternoon He
talked about the. future.
He doesn't know that when they be-
gan skin CRAFTS this morning they found
new places where he was still burning.
He doesn't know that the greedy phos-
phorous Is down In his bones and still
going.
His pain. you re-, y less now be-
causs the nerves are burning away.