Red Cross Doctors and Nurses
THE boy who goes to war
today faces torpedoes, bombs,
liquid fire, deadly gases, quick
firers and siege guns. Never
before have the means of
dealing death been so numerous or so
ingenious, or so terrible.
Yet he has a better chance of coming
back home, safe and sound, than he
would have had in any great war that
has been fought. Base hospitals, as they
have been evolved in the present war,
together with superior methods of
surgery, are responsible for that
Roger Babson, the statistician, is
quoted as saying that fourteen out of
fifteen men have been safe hitherto in (
the Great War—and the losses at first
were vastly greater than the losses now.
He continues:
"Under present conditions, where man
power is being saved, not more than one ,
in thirty is killed. Only one man in 500 j
loses a limb, a chance no greater than j
in hazardous conditions at home." J
M. Andre Tardieu, French High Com
missioner to the United States, has
.given out figures showing that the per- \
centage of casualties in proportion to
the mobilized strength of France has
fallen from 2.39 for the first six months '
of 1915 to 1.28 in the last six months :
of 1916. \
How does it happen that soldiers to
day are safer than ever before?
Learning How to Care for the
Wounded
The answer, as suggested above, is
that the nations have learned how to
take care of their soldiers. Camp sani
tation, scientific rationing, business or
ganization of the supply service—these
things count, but the big vital factor in
saving husbands and sons for the
women who wait at home is the effi
ciency of the medical service.
The second answer, also, is the Red
Cross. As Lord Wantage, father of the
British Red Cross movement, said:.
"However well organized an Army
Medical Sen-ice may be, it never has
been, and never will be, able to cope
adequately with the sudden emergencies
of war on a large scale, and voluntary
organizations, unimpeded by official re
strictions, are alone capable of giving ]
auxiliary relief and of providing extra j
comforts and luxuries with the requisite
promptitude and rapidity."
That is why, when America entered i
the war, the first organized forces of
the United States to go abroad were
Red Cross base hospital units which had
been mustered into the United States
Army Medical Corps. That is why
rijrht now you would find American
doctors ana nurses desperately liaiu
at work behind the lines in France,
trying to keep British and French
soldiers from slipping out of the
"Wounded" into the "Death" lists. Be
cause of the Red Cross they are ready,
just as soon as they are needed, to per
form the same service for American
boys.
How the Red Cross Prepared
Two years before America entered the
war, and thus suddenly had need of all
the medical service at her command, the
Red Cross began the organization of its
base hospital and ambulance company
units.
Under the direction of Colonel Jef
ferson R. Kean, who had been detailed
to the Red Cross from the Medical
Corps of the Army, the Military Relief
Department set out to enlist the aid of
the Red Cross chapters throughout the
country in providing trained personnels
of doctors and nurses available for in
stant duty in time of'war or national
disaster.
Altogether a total of forty-seven base
hospitals were organized, financed, and
largely equipped. The national treasury
of the Red Cross was scarcely drawn
upon at all in this work. Not only did
the chapters recruit the staffs for each
of these units from their city hospitals,
but in several cases they undertook to
purchase the necessary equipment and
'to make the required amount of hos
pital supplies in the chapter workrooms.
In New York six hospitals were or
ganized, in Chicago four, and in Phila
delphia four. The New York County
chapter, not content with the minimum
requirements laid down by the Depart
ment of Military Relief and the medical
authorities of the Army, went ahead
on experiments to develop improvements
in equipment. With some of the most
prominent surgeons and doctors in the
United States enlisted on the staffs, the
chapter organized a committee on re
search and standardization. The work
of this committee has now resulted in
the development of a new type of mov
able food kitchen to be attached as a
trailer to ambulances or field columns.
It has made similar experiments in the
field kitchen attached to base hospitals.
Other cities show the same initiative.
All over the country the greatest in
terest was shown in the organization of
these grreat reserve relief ■ agencies.
As a result of these activities of
Colonel Kean's department, the Red
Cross had available at the time of the
declaration of war thirty fully organ
ized base hospital units. Each was
practically fully manned with a staff of
twenty-four surgeons and doctors and
sixty-five nurses. The non-professional
personnel of more than one hundred
and fifty enlisted men was not gotten
together until after the beginning of the
war. Each had bed equipment, surgical
apparatus, linen supplies, etc., sufficient
to care for five hundred patients.
Within a fortnight after the declara
tion of war on Germany, six of these
Red Cross units were ordered into active
service. The first unit to sail was Base
Hospital No. 4, from Cleveland. Two
days later, on May 11th, the Harvard
Unit, No. 5, was off, with Dr. Harvey
Cushing, Professor of Surgery in the
iiat Aivuicai ocuuut, UJ ID ncau.
Then went four others, one from Co
lumbia and the Presbyterian Hospital in
New York, with Dr. George E. Brewer
in charge; one from the Pennsylvania
Hospital at Philadelphia, directed by Dr.
Richard F. Harte; another representing
Washington University, at St. Louis,
with Dr. Frederick T. Murphy; and still |
another from Chicago, headed by Dr.
I' rcderick Besley. More than twelve
have now been sent to the front, and,'
pending the taking over of trenches by
the American troops, are serving with
the British and French armies.
Tlie remainder of these forty-seven
hospital units are equally prepared and
ready for the call to service, whether
abroad or at home, on a moment's
notice.
King George Expresses England's
Gratitude
So quick was the response that King
George of England, on the arrival of
the first units in London, felt called
upon to express Britain's gratitude. ;
To the members of the Presbyterian
Hospital unit of New York, on their j
reception at Buckingham Palace, he de- i
clared:
"We greet you as the first detachment
of the American Army which has landed
on our shores since your great Republic
resolved to join in the world struggle
for the ideals of civilization. We deeply
appreciate this prompt and generous re
sponse to our needs.
"t is characteristic of the humanity
and chivalry which have ever been
evinced by the American nation that the
first assistance rendered to the Allies is
in connection with the profession of
healing and the work of mercy."
Such were the returns the Red Cross
was able to draw on the $2,000,000 in
surance—as these funds really were—
invested in the equipment of base hos
pitals, much of it before the war began.
It was insurance that paid for itself not
merely in the promptness with which
the base hospital units were ready for
service, but in the saving of lives and
anxiety they effected through being
ready.
What a Base Hospital Does
Look for a moment at one of these
great Red Cross agencies of mercy as
it is now in operation in France. Pet
haps it is quartered in tents on the
sand-dunes along the Belgian coast; per
haps it has been temporarily installed in
some French hospital to undergo a
period of training before going up near
the actual front.
As soon as the wounded have re
ceived attention from the regimental
surgeon and have gone through a cas-
International Film Service, Inc.
These poilus are getting well fast at the American Red Cross Hospital in
Paris, where Dr. Joseph A. Blake i 3 in charge.
ualty clearing station, where the opera
tions that cannot be postponed are per
formed, they go to a base hospital. At
the base hospital .only those cases arc
kept which can be promptly handled in
three weeks or less. Men whose in
juries will keep them in a hospital
longer than that go back still further to
the general hospitals or to England.
In the hospital you will find nurses
picked from the cream of the profes
sion in the United States, thoroughly
trained, strong and devoted enough to
support the doctors in their long, long
days of fatiguing service.
You will find college boys and other
boys, accustomed to comfort, trained
for all sorts of highly skilled work,
serving as members of the enlisted staff
—clerks, assistants, technicians, order
lies, busy at the hard, dirty work of a
war hospital, harder and more distaste
ful than any one who has dot been
I there can imagine.
HXRRISBURG TELEGRAPH
The doctors and nurses have labored
under tremendous pressure. The size
of many of the units has been increased.
Some now have a thousand beds in
stead of the SOO originally provided for,
and six of the units have had reinforce
ments in all classes of their personnel.
A Hospital Under Fire
These men and women are of splen
did stuff. If any proof of this had been
needed, it would have been supplied by
their behavior under fire when the
Harvard unit was bombarded by a
German airmt.i on the night of Sep
tember 4th. Lieut William T. Fitz
simor.s, of the Medical Officers' Reserve
Corps, and three army privates were
killed, and thirty-two persons were
wounded. This cable tells {he story:
"The attack occurred at 11 o'clock at
night Just at that time fortunately no
convoy of wounded was being received,
far greater, as one of the bombs fell
into the center of the large reception
tent to which the wounded are first
borne for examination.
"Ten seconds sufficed for the drop
ping of the first bombs from the flying
plane, and within less than a minute
afterward the surgeons of the hospital
were at the task of collecting and at
tending those who had been struck
down. And for twenty-four hours they
were at work in the operating room, one
The first detachments ot the American Armv to reach Europe for service
The first detachments ot the American Army to reach Europe for service
were Base Hospital Units of the Army Medical Corps, organized by the
Red Cross. The King of England welcomed the first unit at Buckingham
Palace on May 23rd. The Queen is at the King's right. Ambassador Page
surgeon relieving the other when the
latter from simple exhaustion could
work no longer, and the very next day,
just as if nothing had happened, these
same surgeons were called upon to re
ceive and care for 200 wounded sent
Brown Brothers.
If there are no permanent buildings these Base Hospital Units which tTi
Red Cros3 has turned over to the Army Medical Corps get right to work
under canvas.
in from the trenches of the British
Expeditionary Force.
"At the time the German aviator flew
over it most of the surgical staff was
engaged in making rounds of the wards.
"The first bombs were directly in front
of Lieut. Fitzsimons' tent. He probably
never knew what happened to him. The
next two fell a hundred feet beyond,
in a five marquee ward in which there
were many patients, and the last struck
the reception tent.
"Overhead there was no sound. The
German aviator flew too high to be
heard, but he left his identity behind
him, not only in the bombs he dropped,
but in the derisive handful of pfennings
he scattered upon .the hospital.
"Although the exploding bombs cre
ated horror in the hospital, there was
not the smallest sign of panic, and the
work of discovering the wounded and
collecting them was immediately begun.
This was made cruelly difficult by the
darkness, but every one sprang to it
© Underwood & unatrwooa.
Nurses like these, from the finest hospitals of the country, art at work in
France and ready to care for American soldiers.
with a will. Many of the injured had
been blown ffotn their cots, some even
outside their tents, where they were
found tangled up in the tent ropes. An
American nurse, although struck in the
face by a fragment of steel from the
bomb, refused to be relieved and re
mained at her task courageously to the
end. A hospital orderly who worked
untiringly was found later to have been
struck in the head by a fragment and
painfully injured. He had just tied up'
his head and worked on.
"In the operating room, Captains
Horace Binney and Eliott, with their
asistants, worked all night long. Sev
eral delicate operations were performed
and their work was made all the harder
by the fact that in innumerable cases
the patients were in serious danger of
infection from the pieces of wood and
nails and dirt which had been thrown
into their bodies."
When the Wounded Come
Here is the picture of the arrival of
a trainload of wounded at one of the
American hospitals, as it was described
by one of the doctors:
"A reasonable time before the arrival
of a convoy we are informed," he
writes. "Just before it comes in we are
called from our billets by the expression,
'Train is now pulling in.' We dress as
soon as possible. Simultaneously we
hear 'assembly' being blown for the men.
They all go on duty—every one of them.
Most of the convoys arrive in the dark.
"A certain number of men are as
signed to the train. Wounded are taken
off promptly. The hospital trains are
wonders. The wounded are handled
here with great care and comfort, and
sleep for the most part of the journey
from the casualty clearing stations to
us. The trains have operating rooms
and are equipped in first-class style.
"After being taken off the train the
wounded are assigned to ambulances
detailed for certain wards, depending on
diagnosis of case and capacity of the
wards.
"After the ambulances have delivered
the cases to the hospital buildings our
men carry out the patients to the re
spective wards. The whole thing works
like a breeze. A convoy of 500 patients
can be taken from the trains by ambu
lances to the hospital and be fixCd com
fortably in bed in a few hours."
So the picture might have gone on.
Surgical dressings used in the wards,
all made by the loving hands of devoted
women back in the States —the sheets,
pillow-cases, the bed clothing (each
jacket has its tiny Red Cross sewed
near the collar) —all stand for the Red
Cross and the part the Red Cross has
to play in war —to relieve the pain and
cufferioff that are ill inev-itahle r iulti