Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 253 249. Powerless Doctors
The entire card maintenance guard has a total of 25 people, most of whom are ordered by Franz himself. Although their military ranks are not high, they have received strict training from the captain to the team members, and because of the uniqueness of the mission, even if there is no The captain's on-the-spot command can also complete his work well.

Captain Aleister has served in the army for more than 20 years. He is very skilled and accurate on the spot.

Not long after Kavi was forcibly evacuated from the operating room, when he was still thinking about what to do with the soldiers lying on the operating table, the Prussian artillery fire covering the temporary hospital block taught him a good lesson.

As soon as Kawei got into the carriage, he couldn't help asking the captain of the guard outside the window: "Where is the patient I just operated on???"

"When we withdrew, there were other soldiers who were dealing with the aftermath. They should have been taken away by others." Naturally, Aleister didn't know how the patient's fate would turn out, so all he could do now was to make Kawei quiet, "They were Brenz's Osa coalition is in charge of the transfer and we have no right to interfere."

Carvey couldn't question such an arrangement, so he could only ask, "What about Mr. Ignatz?"

"I have already boarded the previous carriage and left. The entire military hospital is being transferred. Doctor Kawei should think more about himself." Aleister tightened the reins and asked the first emergency team to step up to the carriage. Not out of danger."

"By the way, where are we going now?"

"Go east to the garrison of the Sixth Army first, and make a decision after figuring out the deployment direction of the entire western front." Aleister winked at the team members in the driver's seat of the carriage, and warned, "Please stop." Doctor Wei, sit still, the carriage will be bumpier next time."

Although the entire military hospital is being transferred, those who can really leave in a carriage like Karvey are the few of the few.

Ordinary doctors and nurses can only rely on walking, while the wounded who cannot move normally rely on slower ox carts.

In order to ensure the transfer of the wounded, the army also needs to consider food and fresh water supplies, and also needs a decent escort to accompany them.In practice, however, this is almost impossible in the center of Gablenz.

The Prussian attack was very swift and violent, and the speed of the advance was far faster than the evacuation. The defense line outside the city was smashed before it could withstand it for a long time.Just as the Prussian soldiers rushed into the city center, there were still a large number of wounded who failed to catch the last ox cart and became prisoners of the other party in the ward.

And those wounded who got on the bullock cart didn't feel much better.

The bumpy and muddy road and the harsh noise from the wheels of the ox cart were not enough to impede the progress of the car, but it could make the wounded soldiers lying on the wooden planks miserable.The crude axles and wheels are not even fixed together, and can only be temporarily fixed by some metal inserts.

But no matter how you deal with it, the sound produced by the rotation of the axle cannot be avoided, which not only tortures people but also attracts pursuers.Even if the noise is really avoided, unless the car is of excellent quality, it will still be overtaken by the pursuing Prussian soldiers at a speed of less than 20 kilometers per day.

If luck really got rid of the pursuit, an average of 3-5 wounded soldiers in each vehicle would have to face their own injuries, the cold weather in October, and the dilemma of lack of food.

In the end, like Carvey, there were very few people who joined the Sixth Army that was retreating at the same time in the field that night.

A small number of them were fed shells and bullets, most of them became Prussian prisoners, and some wounded soldiers died on the road because of their serious injuries. Of course, this also includes a large number of deserters who chose to disappear.

Carvey and his team safely entered the temporary barracks of the Sixth Army under the arrangement of the escort, but he couldn't be happier: "The entire medical deployment on the Western Front is very backward, it feels like watching a movie from the last century. like war."

"Dr. Carvey still likes to complain so much."

Laming was lying on the couch outside the tent, looking at the new moon in the sky and the shining stars around him: "It's not bad, at least these few days will be good weather."

"Deputy Marshal Lamin, I don't have the slightest opinion on front-line command and leading troops to fight, but medical deployment is my job, and I have the responsibility to point out the mistakes and omissions!" Carvey was sitting on a stone not far away, wearing a Wearing a thick military overcoat, "No matter how you look at it, Gablenz's medical deployment has failed!"

"I know, but I can't help it."

Lamin took the vegetable soup sent by the soldiers, took a sip, and said: "Gablenz's army is already in chaos, not only the Austrians, but also Sarsen and a bunch of South Prussian troops mixed in. The command of this miscellaneous army is not in my hands, I am only in charge of the command of the Sixth Army."

"I mean medical deployment!"

"It shouldn't come out of your mouth." Laming smiled and said, "Whether it's the Sixth Army or the motley army, the military medical department is fully responsible for the deployment of military doctors."

"But you said yes before"

"I don't want the conflict between you and the Military Medical Office to affect the Sixth Army."

"This is not a personal grievance, it's about the lives of the entire Western Front army!"

Although the medical deployment on the western front had nothing to do with Kavey, after seeing the real situation with his own eyes, he still felt that the loopholes were too big and he couldn't stand it: "Because of the failure of the medical deployment, it caused panic when retreating! If it is On the northern line, there are military hospitals before and after the Fortress of Olmitz, and there are also a large number of escort carriages in the middle, which will form a buffer, at least."

"Okay, okay." Lamin interrupted him, and said with a wry smile, "Doctor Carvey, I think you were all focused on training before the war, or were you writing your military medical manual? "

"What does this mean?"

"You can look at the equipment used by the military doctors on the northern front, and then look at the equipment on the western front. Not to mention carriages, there are even very few accompanying mules."

Lamin drank the vegetable soup and continued: "In order to get rid of the 'Laszlo's tentacles', Edinson has spent a lot of thought. Of course, the army has already drained the empire's treasury. The line is different from the northern line, far away from the capital and there are so many coalition forces to help, so it should be frugal."

Carvey did not look carefully at the medicines and equipment of the military doctors on the Western Front, and he attributed those seemingly difficult scenes to the losses caused by the war.

But now it seems that the defeat on the Western Front has exposed the drawbacks of the old management model of the Military Medical Office, and even ether for anesthesia has become a scarce commodity in the entire Sixth Army.On this supposedly silent night, Carvey could still hear the screams in the surgical tent not far away.

According to his temper, it was supposed to be time to enter the surgical tent to help, but Lamin refused to let him intervene, so Carvey could only stay by the fire and "talk" with him.

In his opinion, this kind of heart-to-heart chat is meaningless, because even without any command experience, he can still see some bad signs, and a major defeat on the Western Front is inevitable.

"The warm vegetable soup is delicious with the bread from our Sixth Army, right?" Lamin asked vaguely, then got up and walked towards his command tent, "It's enough to come here alive. Thankfully, at least the Prussians don't have to march at night and can sleep well."

"We will continue to retreat eastward tomorrow morning?"

"Of course! The Sixth Army will avoid the sharp edge of the Prussians, retreat back to Kischen and wait for the order of Grand Duke Brecht." Lamin lifted the curtain and looked back at Karvey, "As for Dr. Karvey You, whether you follow me back to Kischin, or retreat northward on your own depends entirely on your own wishes."

Compared with the "tit for tat" between Carvey and Lamin, Ignatz on the side is very open.

As the chief surgeon who was also excluded from the ranks of the Sixth Army's military doctors by Laming, he acted very calmly: "After all, we are only doctors. Even if we really help on stage, how much can we help? Without ether, the delicate spirit you represent There's simply no use for surgery."

"Even without anesthesia, my technique is no worse than anyone else's."

"It's nothing more than doing a few more amputations. The Sixth Army has no shortage of amputee doctors."

"What about the one who was shot in the abdomen?"

"A simple bandage will do, just like in the war I participated in before."

"But."

"You should know how much pain a wounded soldier can suffer from prolonged abdominal surgery without the aid of anesthesia."

Reality doesn't give Kavey any room to choose. The only thing he can do now is to rest well under Lamin's "temporary arrangement".

Of course, as a modern surgeon, he couldn't fall asleep amidst such screams, so he could only distract himself by chatting with Ignatz.

The Franco-Austrian war that the two gradually talked about was actually not long ago. In just seven years, the portable equipment of Austrian military doctors has been greatly upgraded.

At the time, the number of mules, escort carriages and light trucks was quite scarce, and military doctors more often carried their own rucksacks and first-aid kits.Only some extremely necessary items can be put in the mule's cargo basket, and such mules may not be able to match one of each infantry regiment.

"Anyway, the infantry regiment can be equipped with three mules now, but it's just that they carry more or other items."

"It's okay to have less medicine, but I didn't expect that there was even a lack of ether."

"The front line is not the capital Vienna after all, and it's normal to have no anesthesia." Ignatz made a leg-sawing gesture, "My hand speed was developed at that time, even if you don't want to saw, those soldiers will beg You saw. Because if you don’t saw the wound, it will rot and die.”

"I'm afraid carbolic acid has bottomed out now."

"Well, it's already used up, and even clean water has to be saved. Now it's far away from the freshwater river. If you use it indiscriminately, the freshwater used by the entire Sixth Army will not be able to support Kischin." Ignatz said, "It's also There’s no way, the supplies in the rear can’t keep up, so they can only endure like this. It’s been like this in previous wars, just get used to it.”

Although Kavey is much older than Ignatz, and his surgical skills are vastly different, he has zero war experience.

Even though he had made good mental preparations before the war, he saw many battlefield wounded and horrific wounds in the General Hospital of the Northern Fortress, but it was only when he actually came to the Western Front that he experienced the cruelty first-hand.

The real 19th century military doctors, in addition to facing these psychological pressures, also need to face the baptism of artillery fire and bullets.

What Carvey experiences during the day is just scratching the surface.

[It is impossible for a responsible team surgeon to stay away from artillery fire, and it is even more difficult for a responsible medical administrator to avoid cannon fire]
This is what Ignatz felt in the Franco-Austrian War, and it was naturally written into his memoirs.Carvey has read that book and seen this sentence, so he always wants to avoid such a situation.

But the fact is, as Ignatz said, as long as the surgeon behaves sufficiently "responsible", the war cannot be avoided.

"At that time, my assistants and I were very close to the military flag." Ignatz picked up some memories a little bit, and told his students, "It was about seven steps away, and only in this way can the wounded be given the fastest medical treatment." treat."

"In this case, the doctor is equivalent to directly facing the enemy's firepower attack."

"There is a shortage of manpower, and there is no evacuation mechanism like the current one. An entire infantry regiment can deal with trauma. There are only two surgeons and a dozen musicians. What we could do at that time was to deal with most of the wounded and wounded on the spot. If their wounds cannot be healed, they will be sent to the army's temporary ambulance, which is probably in the same location as the Gablenz temporary ambulance during the day."

Ignatz took a bite of the rye bread in his hand, and said with a smile: "I really thank God, bless me to live until now."

Carvey has to feel that the status of a surgeon is completely linked to his own skills.In other words, as long as the surgeon wasn't tough enough to bring back enough freshmen for the army, he wasn't treated much better.

Compared with the safe position in the rear where most modern military doctors stay, military doctors in the 19th century were actually not much different from ordinary stretcher soldiers.Even Ignatz, who has experienced the Franco-Austrian War and is the chief surgeon of the Military Medical Department, is still unable to have a guard like Carvey.

What really widened the gap was the abdominal surgery performed by Carvey before the war and the spinal surgery on the old marshal.

No matter which one, it has been well received by almost all surgeons, and it has also broken the existing records. It is a surgery that can truly restore the vitality of the empire.

At this time, the sound of horseshoes came from a distance, and the cavalry reconnaissance team composed of three returned to the command post.

It was the captain of the guard, Aresta, who took the lead: "Doctor Carvey, the scouting troops reported that the Prussian troops have been staying in Gablenz, and they are not in a hurry to attack here."

"Then follow what you want, Captain."

"Based on the current situation, following the Sixth Army to withdraw to Kischin is the safest option." Aleister said, "Although the marching speed is not fast enough, a lot of time will be wasted on the road, but your safety comes first of."

"How long is the journey?"

"According to the speed of retreat during the day, I am afraid it will take three days to reach Kischin."

"It will take several days to return from Kiscin to Olmitz. This is not counted as an accident in the middle, and I have been deprived of the right to enter the military doctor's tent along the way!" Carvey glanced at Ares. Tower, "What if I choose to go straight back to Olmitz?"

(End of this chapter)