A North Vietnamese Doctor Remembers His Experience in a Jungle Hospital (shec.ashp.cuny.edu)

submitted 3 months ago by buh@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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We didn't even have scalpels or other surgical instruments. We fashioned our own out of used scrap metal from unexploded American bombs and shell casings or pieces of aluminum from planes that had been shot down. We even made intravenous tubes from the rubber insulation we found around electrical wires on American aircraft. So the American provided us with many of our supplies.

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[-] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 months ago

CW Gore:

!Even more interesting is the last paragraph IMO, where they describe purposely leaving wounds open to avoid infections, and blocking arteries rather than sewing them, which lead to blood flow being established through "collateral" arteries instead.!<

[-] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago

When I had an infection in my spine, they used a wound vac. Basically, it's a seal around the wound with a tube running out of the injury site that pumps stuff out of the body. The reason they had to do this was so the wound healed from the inside out. If the top layer of muscle and skin heal before the inner layers, it creates pockets where bacteria can form and multiply (which is why I got infected in the first place).

I take it they didn't have wound vacs in Vietnam to do this, so they had to keep wounds open.