Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 241 237. Two Big Gambles
In the 19th century, people's lifespan was very short, and the requirements for age and basic education were not so high. Many geniuses could emerge on their respective stages early on.

These characters often appear together in the art world, and they can win the favor of royal nobles before they reach adulthood, just because artistic creation relies on talent and inspiration rather than time-precipitated experience.

But even so, Carvey's promotion along the way can be called magic.It has never been seen in the history of Austrian medical circles to gain the recognition of almost all surgeons at such an age and to be reused by King Franz at the same time.

Caesarean section, Justina's modified mastectomy + breast remodeling, Fernand's abdominal surgery, Old Marshal Ludwig's spinal surgery
In the 19th century, when surgical conditions were extremely harsh, Carvey barely reached this point by relying on one operation after another that surpassed the current cognition.

Military doctors, including medical logistics, need a complete set of systems to ensure their operation. Maintaining the old system will definitely encounter considerable trouble, so at first he wanted to make changes to the entire military medical department.

It's a pity that there can be two tigers in one mountain, and becoming another person in charge equal to Edinson has not dispelled some people's doubts.On the surface, he is licensed by the imperial power, but when it comes to the critical moment, Kawei's qualifications and title are still not convincing.

Standing on the cusp of the storm will be stared at by everyone, so it is better to take a step back.

Finally, after the discussion, Carvey chose to give up the power to intervene in the Military Medical Service and the Medical Committee, and further reduced his power to intervene in surgical operations.He only took from Edinson the General Hospital of the Army Fortress Olmitz on the Northern Front, and became its superintendent there.

That's it, it was only after Grand Duke Brecht helped to speak.

Power is only meaningful if it is recognized by his subordinates. This kind of exchange and active concession makes Kawei feel relaxed.

In Edinson's eyes, the northern line is the closest to Vienna, with heavily garrisoned troops, and it is also the main direction of Austria's attack, so the situation will not be too severe.Even if there is a big war, the front line has already advanced to Silesia, and it has nothing to do with Kavi who stays behind.

Life will be very comfortable, and at the same time, you will not get any meritorious honor.

After decentralization, among the military hospitals of the entire Austrian army, only two hospitals on the northern front, Olmitz and Jordek, strictly abide by Kavey's "Military Doctor Manual", and all of them are willing to follow Kavey. surgeon.

On the Western Front, the army as a whole is mainly defensive.

The town of Muchen along the Isar River is the top priority this time. The general hospital there was supervised by Edinson himself, and its overall level is basically comparable to that of the Prussian hospital in Gran Seny.

Of course, this is also related to the size of the town. There is no large hospital like Olmitz in the local area, and everything needs to be expanded on the basis of the small hospital.

With the preparation period of four months, it is not a problem to complete the expansion of a hospital with 1500+ beds.Carvey also gave a list of the logistical materials needed by the hospital, as well as a planning map of the wards.Including how to exterminate rats and insects, how to disinfect wards, how to clean sheets and equipment, how to fetch water, how to transport supplies, wounded soldiers, etc.
It is a pity that Edinson still maintained the original arrangement and did not adopt it.

He only expanded a small part of the original foundation of the small hospital, and then placed a large number of wards in private houses around the hospital, enclosing a large medical area with simple wall panels.This did save costs, and it wouldn't bring much change to the city after leaving, but he seriously underestimated the intensity of the casualties on the battlefield.

In three days, the 1000 beds brought by private houses were quickly exhausted.Facing the constant evacuation of wounded soldiers, it was obviously impossible to expand further, so we had to rely on tents to solve the accommodation problem.

By the third day, the tents were also used up, so the church and some large houses in the town could only be borrowed as temporary settlements for wounded soldiers.

The ward was only one of the difficulties he encountered. The more critical problem was that the number of wounded soldiers had not been considered before, and the four expanded operating rooms were also severely run.

The operating room here cannot be compared with the professional operating room after Carvey's careful reconstruction. There is no connected logistics warehouse, no regular disinfection and cleaning, and no green fast track connecting with the ward.If you want to send a patient for surgery, you need to find a certain private house where the patient is located, and then use a horse-drawn carriage to transport it, which is time-consuming and laborious.

What's more troublesome is that the area of ​​the operating room is very limited.

Eddinson is not like Carvey, it is difficult to get rid of the shackles of the internal layout of the operating theater. One operating room and one operating table severely limit the utilization rate of the operating room.

Of the 2300 casualties, nearly 800 of them needed timely surgery. It is obviously not enough to rely on only four operating rooms.In the end, it turned into a situation where residential buildings were rebuilt or directly used as operating rooms, and the concept of disinfection that Carvey emphasized before disappeared.

When everything changed due to the surge in the number of personnel, the doctors' treatment operations began to deform, and the operation became disorganized. Everything was performed to complete the task, not to treat the wounded.

The president of Muchen General Hospital is Etler, a chief physician who came all the way from Hungary.

The reason why Edinson is willing to hand over the hospital to him is because the 45-year-old Etler opened a hospital in Budapest, Hungary and has 14 years of hospital management experience.At the same time, he also agrees with Edinson's philosophy. No matter how you look at it, Ettler is a very rare talent.

But managing a dental hospital and a front-line military hospital are completely different things. Etler encountered a lot of trouble on the second day of the war.

What bothered him the most was not the treatment of wounded soldiers, but language communication.

Austria's Western Front troops were mixed with Hungarians, Czechs and Poles, and even some troops had Slavs, and the language was difficult to unify.Moreover, the morale of these non-Austrian soldiers was far from excellent, and they began to spread panic in the ward as soon as they encountered setbacks. 【1】

Soon, this panic, accompanied by sensitive numbers of soldier casualties, spread to the entire Western Front barracks.

Austria can only build fortifications on the east bank of the Isar River with the Saxon Kingdom Army to resist the Prussian attack.

The battle damage on October 10 directly shattered the last strength of the Austrian barracks, and the casualties of more than 3 people far exceeded the 1000 people in Prussia.

This kind of battle loss ratio was intolerable to the commander-in-chief, Archduke Brecht. Therefore, after he sent the Sixth Army to the front line of Mu Chen on October 10, after thinking about it, he still passed Eddinson and sent directly to Olmi Karvey of Fortress Fortress went to telegraph.

The disadvantages in equipment have been highlighted. If the medical logistics is still in a mess like it is now, the war will undoubtedly be lost.

Carvey received a telegram translation on the morning of October 10, assembled a medical team and left Olmitz.

He left Hills to manage the fortress hospital on his behalf, and Bill Roth, as the chief surgeon, supervised all surgical operations.And Ignatz, the first trauma treatment team, Lucius, Graham, Sarson, and a group of assistants and nurses were packed by him and sent to the carriage to the town of Muchen on the west front.

Here are all elites, escorted by the Royal Guards who were originally in charge of Kawei's safety. The journey went smoothly and nothing happened.

However, Mu Chen at this time is no longer the Mu Chen of four days ago.

After the Sixth Army entered the battlefield on the Western Front, Grand Duke Brecht's Deputy Field Marshal Wilhelm von Lamin immediately commanded the troops to cross the Isar River again, and had a fight with the Prussian Lieutenant General Metz who was deploying troops in the riverside town. face to face.

The battle started in the early hours of October 10.

This round of night attack by Deputy Marshal Lamin was very effective, and the timing happened to be stuck in the night when supplies were being transported.

Numerous baggage vehicles and gun carriages were crowded on the throat path leading to the town, and even Metz and his staff officers were trapped in this "traffic jam".The Prussian troops looked bloated here, and the entire marching team seemed to be squeezed in the middle, unable to move, let alone make effective decisions.

The troops could not be deployed, and the vanguard was caught off guard.

It was not until the middle of the night that Metz's main force got out of the crowd after exhausting all kinds of hardships, and quickly ordered the army to shrink its defense to resist the first wave of Lamin's offensive.

The two armies made a short rest in the morning, and when the time came to 2 pm, the Prussian and Austrian armies had a real battle since the start of the war on the high ground.The 1st Brigade of the Sixth Army of Deputy Marshal Lamin occupied the commanding heights first, and launched a courageous and fierce resistance to the modified Prussian attack.

Among them, the hunters under Lamin's command performed the most outstandingly.

However, the Prussian army immediately launched a counterattack with the rapid firepower of the new rifles. By around 4 pm, the 1st Brigade was shattered under the attack of the Prussian army.After learning about the battle situation, Lamin immediately sent another brigade to support, but unfortunately, this brigade soon ended up in a similar end.

During the battle, rows and rows of Austrian infantry were torn apart by bullets and bomb fragments.Under the huge firepower net, they fell in batches among the grass and brambles.

The battle was extremely fierce, and people couldn't help but recall the scene in the Battle of Solferino with the French seven years ago.Dead bodies piled up like a mountain, and later soldiers stepped on the corpses of their comrades in arms, and then became new corpses
At the beginning, because of the heavy casualties in the battle, neither the three nor Franz was in the mood to fight again. In the end, Austria failed and gave up the Lombardy region.

But at this time, Lamin miscalculated the situation. He thought that the Prussians were exhausted after several fierce battles, so he sent his elite cavalry in the evening, hoping to end the battle in one fell swoop.

However, the Austrian cavalry was soon intercepted by Metz's dragoons and lancers.

At the same time, more infantry and artillery flooded into the battlefield and joined the battle because the transportation of supplies in the small town in the rear was opened up.At 8 o'clock in the evening, after several near-suicidal charges by the heroic Austrian cavalry failed completely, the stubborn Lamin finally gave the order to retreat.

The remaining soldiers in distress crossed the Isar River and returned to the small town of Muchen.

In this battle, the total loss of the Austrian army was more than 6000, of which 2500 were declared dead or missing.On the opposite side, Prussia lost only 62 officers and 1060 soldiers, of which the death toll was only 315.

Until October 10, when Carvey brought his medical team to the Western Front, the original Muchen General Hospital had already left the control of the Austrian army and became a part of Prussia.

On the night of the 8th, Lamin, who suffered a disastrous defeat in the battle, left the Isar River with his remaining troops and continued to retreat eastward.The Osa coalition forces that were originally in Muchen were no match for the Prussians at all, so they left along with them.

Originally, according to the predictions of Archduke Brecht and Lamin, the Prussians would not advance too fast.

But it turns out that the two Austrian commanders underestimated the opponent's marching speed too much.

Lieutenant General Metz did not choose to wait for the main force in the rear. He had won the essence of old Moltke's commanding operations, and he was extremely resolute on the spot.As soon as the Austrian army retreated, he organized his troops to quickly cross the river and attack the small town of Muchen on the east bank of the Isar River.

If the Osa allied forces had not retreated together, the attack would have been declared a failure.

It's a pity that there are no ifs in the world, and Metz won the bet.

The Prussian troops crushed the remnants of the Austrian army all the way to the east, until they came to the outskirts of Gablenz, 25 kilometers east of Muchen, and were met with a fierce counterattack by Lamin's artillery, and then stopped.

Metz's troops had only 6 artillery pieces, and they could not provide effective artillery support to the attacking friendly forces at all.At this critical moment, the Prussian infantry, uncharacteristically, launched a bayonet charge to the Austrian army.

The second gamble was successful again. From the moment the Pu'ao soldiers saw their bayonets, the armies of both sides began to suffer completely equal casualties.

The hand-to-hand battle lasted for more than an hour, and the main Prussian troops caught up head-on. Lamin's Sixth Army could only get rid of the entanglement of the Prussian troops and announced its retreat again.

"So the western front retreated 30 kilometers and now we come to Gablenz." Carvey looked at the map on the wall and shook his head again and again, "There is no military hospital that was prepared before, everything is temporary."

Ettler stood in front of Karvey as the person in charge of the Muchen General Hospital on the Western Front: "Doctor Karvey, everything is messed up. There are too many casualties in our army, and there is no time to deal with it."

"I've seen it all the way."

Carvey sighed in his heart, if he was deployed to the Western Front, I am afraid it would not be much better.The victory or defeat of the frontline battle has nothing to do with military doctors, and in the end they can only choose to retreat.

However, Etler's handling method was indeed too amateurish. If it was him, even if he retreated, he would not be so disorderly.

Carvey sighed, and didn't mean to blame him: "There is nothing to explain the matter so far, but fortunately, there are things to be thankful for."

"what's up?"

"At least the Prussians did not notice any difference between the Austrian military medical system and their own."

Carvey teased him, and took out a telegram from Archduke Brecht from his pocket and passed it over: "I received an order from the commander-in-chief to come here to support, and I hope Dean Ettler can give me the greatest support."

(End of this chapter)