Under the red crescent : being surgical experiences and observations as an ambulance surgeon in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 / by Robert Pinkerton.

Pinkerton, Robert, M.B.

Date:: 1879

Credit: Under the red crescent : being surgical experiences and observations as an ambulance surgeon in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 / by Robert Pinkerton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$are no urgent symptoms, the less the surgeon interferes the better. I had one case under my care illustrating this. This man was wi • ■ I in an attack on the Russian positions at Shipka, by a . . : over the vertex. The bullet liad ] ;-mmI acros,s the head, at a rii;ht angle to the direction of the ^. <! suture, causing a wound in the scalp of al>out two inches long, leading down to a depressed fracture fully a (juarter of an inch IT • ■ 'h. T^ t the 11 it he received the wound, w.. . .iininj ; . his i..^ , and he fell over the trunk of a trc. , a:. 1 wiy stui.: . r a short time. When 1 saw him be was quite sensible, and coni})lained of nothing but the blow he liad received on Ins chest in falling. He did not think the wound of his head had caused him to fall ; in fact, 1 lid not a<lmit that at all, but believed he had accidentally t . J . I over the fallen tree. There were absolutely no symp- toms demanding interference, so cold watcT dressing was applied to the woun<l, he was kept quiet in bed, an<l special care taken of his stomach and bowels. He recovered perfectly. 1 have several times liad men lirought from the held in a C'^TT nt.,^ state, with a bullet deeply lodged in the brain, or i ^ had one driven right through the lirain, 1 have seen 111 II in that state live for several hours, but 1 mention them, merely to remark, that they are cases which, however harsh it may seem to say so. had l)etter never ha removed from the *^ ' ' all. Hopeless cases like that, which must die, and that .ily within a few hours, should only be attended to after you are certain there are no more poor fellows to whom your services and attention may be of some avail. It is here our new Army Hospital Corps of trained bearers, for gathering ir ' '1 during a battle, and removing them to the will most conspicuously show the advantn-' of V _ mJ in such work. Instead of spending tip i time (as has to so great an extent been the case in similar circumstances hitherto) in removing the wounded promis- cuously, often taking up a man who dies before they reach the surgeon, they will be taught to distinguish between the wounded, and to carry off only those to whom the surgeon's skill can be of some use. Without this picking out process, in a big battle, a large part of the time and strength of the bearers will be spent in carrying off hopelessly wounded men, to the lasting detriment of many others whom they leave behind, and to whom their early assistance would have meant life and home again. The best way in which to administer chloroform to patients, about to undergo operation, I have found a subject of great$