index-29

After I was released from the "Dip" hospital, I returned to the "lines", as we called it, that is, the ordinary or non-hospital huts, which housed the prisoners deemed able to work.

Before long I began having chest pains, and landed in another "hospital". The treatment I received was nothing more than rest. I don't remember feeling ill, but I must have been weak and run down.

Page 25

At any rate, I soon began feeling better. Soon Major Crawford, CMO, took a number of us under his wing and kept us in the hospital to assist the medical orderlies, whose numbers were severely restricted by Japanese regulations.

Page 26

Page 27

The official medical staff, Sgt. Reg Kerr, and Sgt. Ray Squires, were much overworked, and the addition of a few extra hands to empty bedpans, and provide what comfort we could to the sick and dying, was no doubt appreciated. I shudder to think of what might have happened to Dr. Crawford if the Japs had suspected that he was pulling the wool over their eyes.

Medical Orderlies

There were four of us who were kept in the hospital to assist the orderlies: Ken Court, Doc Savage, Walter Thompson, and myself. I am the only one left.

Page 34

Page 35

The duty of an assistant orderly consisted mainly of emptying bed pans and aiding in any way we could under the direction of Ray and Reg. We dispensed sodium bicarbonate wrapped up in small packages, bathed sores with potassium permanganate, and did whatever else we could to alleviate the suffering.

Another misery that dogged us throughout our stay in prison camp was the incidence of scabies. To my understanding, scabies is caused by a micro-organism which insinuates itself under the skin, and if left untreated, festers, and, in time, results in large pustulous ulcers.

To a large extent,these sores appeared on the lower limbs, but in severe cases, ulcers appeared also on the body as well. The treatment was draconian. The poor victim was made to strip, and the medical orderly then scrubbed him with a brush that had had the bristles clipped off short to make the process more effective.

When all the ulcers were bleeding, a solution of sulphur and God knows what else was rubbed into the open sores. How those poor fellows stood the pain, not to mention the indignity, is beyond my comprehension. If the individual did not take good care of himself and keep his body as clean as possible, in a matter of weeks he had to undergo the same torture again.

As an orderly, I had to administer this treatment to a number of my comrades, and believe me, the task was not a pleasant one.I understood the cause of the problem, and was scrupulously clean about myself. Every indication of a scabies pustule was vigourously scrubbed, and whatever disinfectant I could find was carefully rubbed into the wound. As a result, I don't bear any ulcer scars on my body.

Click Here To Go To Part One
Home

Here I must pay tribute to the ingenuity of our medical staff. With very little to work with, it must have been maddening for these scientifically minded men to know the cause, and be certain of the cure, yet be unable because of lack of medicine and the tools to administer it the treatment.

Click Here
To Go To
Part Two
Home

If I recall correctly, the only medicine availably was potassium permanganate as a disinfectant, sodium bicarbonate for stomach ache, sulphur lotion for the treatment of scabies, and, of course, anti-toxin for the treatment of diphtheria when the epidemic was at its worst.

Back to the Lines

For whatever reason, I was released from the hospital and sent back to the "lines". I was deemed fit to work, and so joined the group of tunnellers who went out daily to dig in the side of the mountain

Links

We left ShamShuiPo in the morning in darkness and marched to work, some two or threes miles, there to dig tunnels in the side of the hills. From what information we could get out of the Japs, the purpose of the tunnels was to store food supplies, and to act as defence positions in the event of an American invasion.

Please mail me

Please View My Guestbook

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws