Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

On the European battlefield in the 19th century, it was often not the doctor but the military rank of the wounded that determined the order of treatment of the wounded.

Few military doctors dare to arrange the treatment order of the wounded according to their own medical principles, because this will not only make him enemies within the army, but also affect the future working environment more easily.In the armies of most countries, military rank represents "priority".

Principles tend to be extraordinarily flexible.

Most of the battlefield memoirs in the Vienna Royal Library are written by officers, and it is the pens in the hands of officers that can leave stories on the battlefield.

But the main reason for the existence of memoirs is not the literary accomplishment of the officers and the writing appeal of wanting to record their war life, but to be alive.While carrying the text for historical research, they also convey a cold fact: only those who survived the battlefield are eligible to write.

In the eyes of many surgical assistants at the door, the picture in front of them has already violated many regulations in the "Military Doctor's Manual (Kavi Edition)".

The first is the way of transfer. The number of stretcher teams exceeded the standard seriously. 【1】

According to regulations, even seriously wounded soldiers only need two escorts, and they only need to be escorted to a temporary ambulance, not a rear hospital.Wounded soldiers who can be transported from the rear are usually one out of ten, and there is no need for a stretcher team to follow them, because there is no need to get off the car on the road, and the general hospital can also receive all patients.

The five-man stretcher team, such a luxurious lineup, not only occupied the space of the transfer vehicle, but also directly caused the fact that the unit lost five combat power at once. 【2】

Secondly, minor injuries caused by such gun bullets should not be transferred back as long as they are not life-threatening.As long as the ambulance station does a bandage, or the officer himself is calm enough to bandage himself, he can immediately return to the battlefield to command the troops to fight.

Perhaps at the beginning of the battle, some military doctors made mistakes in their busy schedule, and occasionally one or two slightly wounded soldiers were brought along during the transfer.But as the battle progresses, and as the number of wounded soldiers mounts, the limited medical resources conjure up a subconsciously written grading system.

In today's transport carriages, there are no minor injuries at all, the lightest would be an amputation plus some other injuries.

The injuries of the other people in the car with Major General Maciej could no longer be settled by simple amputation.Some people were dying, some even lost consciousness, and some were declared dead before they even made it to the hospital, and they were thrown in the dead body storage area, waiting to be buried.

Major General Maciej, the son of Count Cram Glass, the commander of the Third Army, was also the commander of the Second Infantry Division of the Third Army that quickly outflanked the artillery positions.

It may be because he was riding a tall horse and holding a steel knife in his hand was too dazzling. When the opponent retreated, he fired a few shots at his position.The left leg was hit by a bullet, and the huge penetrating force destroyed the skin and muscles of his calf, and it also shot into the abdomen of the horse he was riding.

"Such an injury." The assistant at the door was forced by the other party's major general rank and the hospital's rules and regulations, so he had no choice but to carry out the dean who hadn't arrived at the hospital. "The dean has regulations that this kind of gunshot wound should not be sent. General Hospital."

"Then you just watched the major general's blood run dry?"

The assistant didn't dare to speak any more, so he could only approach and remove the gauze that was pressing on the wound.

There was indeed active bleeding, but the bullet hole in the calf was small and the bleeding was very limited.At this time, head-to-head is definitely not enough. He glanced at the nurse behind him and said quickly: "Hurry up and arrange a comfortable bed for the major general, and then closely monitor his blood pressure, heart rate and respiration. Every round of test data needs to be strictly recorded. , and report to the acting dean."

".it is good."

The nurse was overwhelmed by a bunch of adjectives, but she could still find the point after thinking about it carefully.The assistant's meaning is very clear, that is, just leave the person alone and record the vital signs, and don't care about anything else.

It was an expedient measure, but unfortunately, the other party's request was not conservative treatment at all.

"What about the surgery? The bullet shot through the major general's left calf. Don't you need surgery?"

The assistant knew very well that this kind of gunshot wound only needed to stop the bleeding and fight the infection, but he had no right to deal with it, so he could only pass the responsibility to other doctors: "I am just an assistant, and the surgeon will handle it for the major general."

"Where's the doctor? Go find a doctor!"

"Doctors are doing surgery."

Two of the five stood up and walked towards the inner hall of the hospital, shouting as they walked, "Doctor! Major General Maciej is injured, a doctor is needed here!"

The chief surgeons in the general hospital are basically all in the operating room now, and except for the assistants, they are basically young doctors who are difficult to take charge of.From this point of view, Major General Maciej was lucky. Bill Roth and Bottini, who are the pinnacle of surgical technology in the general hospital at this stage, are in the lobby.

But if you look at it from another angle, this major general who is under 40 years old has very bad luck.

Before the Prussian-Prussian War, almost all the military doctors in the empire adhered to the "military rank classification theory", even Watman and Ignatz were no exception.

They generally would not take the initiative to admit the fact that they treated the officers first. Watman was called from the central hospital in the rear to the front line to treat the wounds of an army general. 【3】

This is a unique opportunity for all surgeons, and it has proven so.

The general survived, and the young Watman soon became chief of the army's surgical administration, almost equivalent to Ignatz, the chief surgeon of surgery today.After returning home, Waterman also received the support of many military officials, not only received awards, but also served as the first president of the Austrian Academy of Surgery.

It can be said that no military doctor would refuse an officer's request for medical treatment.

But Bill Roth will.

He has a stubborn temper that refuses to accept anyone, treats medical treatment strictly, and there is no room for negotiation at all.Bottini may be the same as an ordinary military doctor, but he stayed here with a learning attitude, and he did not dare or want to have the decision-making power to deal with patients alone.

When the two of them waded through the wounded soldiers on the ground and walked quickly to the stretcher and saw Major General Maciej, Billrot first raised his dissatisfaction: "This stretcher is not bad, hurry down and bring the carriage back to the battlefield." 【4】

Crowd: ? ? ?
"In addition to the left calf, are there other wounds?"

"Gone."

Bill Roth began to cite a rule to prove his point: "According to the "Military Doctor's Handbook (Karvey Edition)" clearly stated the principle of transfer, 'A single leg injury only needs a crutch, at most may be accompanied by one person'."

"Crutches? If only relying on crutches, the major general might have died for the empire long ago!"

"I don't understand. What kind of injury can be accompanied by multiple people?"

"Two people at most." Billrot took two sticks from the side and handed them over, "Tell him to come down quickly and use the stretcher for those who need it."

In the fortress hospital, a general surgeon who can go on the operating table already has the rank of captain, and Bill Roth, as the vice president of the surgical academy and the second class of surgeons, is almost as good as Maciej in terms of military rank. Quite, they are all major generals.

The only difference is that he only holds a false position and has no real power over the soldiers in the army.

The five accompanying soldiers were not afraid of him, but they didn't dare to make a mistake. They could only go forward and explain politely: "The major general is the son of Earl Kram. I hope you can take good care of his wound."

"I don't have time, I have to take care of the wounded soldier just now." Bill Roth glanced at the assistant, and repeated what he said just now in simple words, "Take a heart rate test, and then wait for the man to be free." If so, he will be re-bandaged."

"Just bandaging?"

"His wound must be opened and drained, and it is strictly forbidden to suture immediately." Although Bill Roth didn't like the microbiology theory proposed by Carvey, the regulations in the military doctor's manual must be followed. "We are an army hospital with strict regulations. You don’t need to teach me how to deal with injuries.”

The five of them still wanted to argue with him, but Maciej called him back: "Forget it, let's do this first."

"But major general, your wound is still bleeding."

"It's okay, just a small injury."

"It is indeed a minor injury, so hurry down and return the stretcher." Bill Roth seemed to value the stretcher under his buttocks very much, "Look at what the wounded are using. The supplies are so short that we need to use broken flagpoles and thin pieces of cloth They came here to make makeshift stretchers, some of them didn’t even have flagpoles, and even shared a bloody blanket covering their bodies!”

This statement is a bit ambiguous.

In the face of the Internet in this battle, the overall medical supplies of the Third Army are sufficient, but this is only limited to the situation of proper deployment, and there is no opportunity for reasonable deployment on the real battlefield.And at the door where the wounded enter and exit, this sentence is no less lethal than a heavy shot from a 12-pound artillery
Seeing that his power was being challenged, Maciej's face was very ugly, but the other party was wearing the rank of colonel and was surrounded by some seriously wounded soldiers, so he really had no face to refute.

But the five soldiers were different.

Maciej was the count's son, a popular man in the army.In their eyes, the injury of the earl's son was an opportunity for performance. Even if they couldn't say it directly to their faces, it was okay to curse in a low voice.

Billrot listened, and asked Bottini to send the wounded soldier with a broken shoulder to the operating room first, and then turned around and walked to the door when the stretcher team was about to arrange the major general into the ward: "Guards, Come, capture them all and send them to the fortress management office."

"Catch who?"

"Major General Maciej's stretcher team!"

It is difficult for those who had been silent before to accept the current result: "We are only responsible for transferring the major general, what is the crime?"

"You are just a doctor, why are you arresting us?"

"You have no right to arrest us!"

Billrot grabbed a stack of registration slips from the sorting office, quickly scanned the wounded's injuries in the slips, and said: "The Military Medical Office has notified the troops two months ago that it is strictly forbidden to transfer to the rear. Deserters are punished. Although I have no real power, I still have the power to deal with deserters.”

"us."

"Could it be that Major General Maciej ordered you to do this?"

"no!"

"That's Earl Cram? Hasn't Mr. Earl received a military order?"

His suspicions became more and more excessive, and the soldiers couldn't bear it at all. In the end, Maciej came out to smooth things over: "They didn't know about this announcement, and they rescued me out of voluntary and kindness. They are all excellent soldiers, Bill Roo It’s a little too much for Dr. Te to say that.”

"Then hurry back to the battlefield and don't embarrass the imperial soldiers!"

In the chaotic Austrian army, this kind of private evacuation or even inexplicable "disappearance" cannot be avoided at all.This is also the rule formulated by Carvey after referring to a military order of General Marshall Ney, Marshal of the French Left Wing Corps at the Battle of Waterloo. 【5】

This provision became the most popular entry among officers in the "Military Doctor's Handbook" that Carvey rushed to complete, because no officer wanted his soldiers to become deserters.

But after actually coming to the battlefield, it is difficult to estimate how many officers can make their soldiers abide by this clause.If he was the one who was injured, most of the officers in the army would become Major General Maciej, and Lockard couldn't be as tough as Bill Roth.

The whole battle lasted until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Prussia lost half an artillery battalion and several artillery pieces, while Austria lost a large number of infantry.

It is difficult to estimate the outcome of the encounter, but some of them "disappeared perfectly" on the battlefield. They have no corpses, and only left names on the list.

Billroth and Bottini's surgery took place an hour after the fight.

The wounded soldier's shoulder was almost completely destroyed. They could only help remove part of the muscles and ribs, and use the remaining skin flap to protect the gap in the chest cavity.But because the operation was too difficult, the wounded soldier died in the ward on the night after the operation.

The scene at the frontline emergency shelter was even more miserable.

There are only a handful of wounded soldiers that can be handled by Locard, and more can only be lined up at the gate of the ambulance, or assistant nurses help with wound debridement and simple bandaging.

There is only suffering on the battlefield, and no one can turn the tide, even Kavey who is on the train.For him, under the premise that war is inevitable, all he can do is to reduce the death of wounded soldiers as much as possible.

The first edition of the "Military Doctor's Handbook" was a temporary rule system of less than a hundred pages that he rushed out.

After several revisions, it became a thousand-page military medical training textbook, which was regarded as a standard by the Austrian Imperial Army.