Description
Mr. Clark talks about looking after wartime amputees.
Charles Howard Clark
Charles Howard Clark was born in Chelton, Prince Edward Island on November 16, 1924. His father worked as a fisherman, carpenter and butcher during the Depression. Mr. Clark indicates that although times were tough, his community shared its resources and no one went hungry. He attended a one room school. Although he was able to enlist, he, like many local youth, had to stay on the farm as the production of food was vital to the war effort. Mr. Clark’s attempts to enlist in 1943 were at first unsuccessful; he was turned down by both the navy and air force, but was finally accepted into the infantry. However, his stay there was short due to a childhood hip injury, which made marching difficult. He then trained as a stretcher bearer, before finally joining the hospital ship ‘Lady Nelson’ as a nurse-orderly. Aboard this vessel, Mr. Clark made seventeen transatlantic voyages, offering medical care of various types to the wounded who were being returned to Canada. He witnessed the Halifax riots and feels much of the blame placed on the military was unwarranted.
Transcript
I think one of the, perhaps one of the main … you said there, about a fella’s arms and things off. The first, I remember, just an example. The first day we loaded up in England, before we sailed that night, I took a walk up on deck. Everybody was standing all around the rail, watching the ship was starting to pull out. Walking along, what’s going on here? There’s a guy, no, you know … all the legs like, and there was a gap there, no legs. There’s a guy there. First time I realized the guy didn’t have any legs. He had his two stubs out through the rail and he was leaning up over the rail, or up through the right, down below like, and he was leaning over the rail. But that was a common thing to see. But I mean that was one of the things that kind of opened your eyes.Like I say, seen a fellow with his leg off and that was nothing ‘til what you seen after awhile. And the paralysed patients that you had to turn every couple of hours, and things like that. They couldn’t do anything for themselves. As I said, there on that little tape there, one patient I waited on, I was what they called floating, like there was an extra orderly sometimes. I was floating that trip and I had to go up in the morning. There was this patient, no arms off, a young man about 20, both arms off, one just above the elbow and one below the elbow. And it just made you realize how helpless somebody can be. One young man, perhaps in his early twenties, you had to go to the bathroom with him, and so on. The fellow with the legs off, it’s like one of the patients said to me one day, he had both legs off, he said, “I’m one of the lucky ones. I only lost two legs.” And he was serious about it, because ... in the medical corps, or not in the medical corps, in the hospital, things he seen … these other fellows, they had arms off and so on. He said, “I’ll get artificial legs.” he said, “and I’ll be ... gonna drive a car ... be able to walk and so on,” because he could with artificial legs. But with the poor fellow’s arms off, pretty hard to get something that works good. At least he could look after himself. Rough. Remember one rough day, one of the orderlies, one fellow with a leg off, said, “You better come in with me,” he said, “I may not stay in the seat too well today,” on the toilet. But he could go himself. But the poor fellow with no arms, he was a very quiet chap. I said, while we were with him for eight, ten days, never got to really know him in a way. He didn’t talk much. I said, I felt when he went home, I had my doubts if he’d show up if some stranger come in, likely. You know, I think he felt it. That he ... and you couldn’t blame him, I mean. Pretty helpless.Most the patients on there were so glad to get home, they weren’t complaining. I think that was part of it. Like I say, I never heard any patients come back and complain about the medical corps either. Because they were glad to have the medical corps pick them up. And I think that was part of it, I mean. And I say, we were lucky. We only had them for eight or ten days, so you didn’t have to ... I imagine it must have been quite a thing for somebody working, an orderly in a hospital ship where some guy had been there for years, that didn’t know if he was coming or going. That must have been ... but we were lucky. We just had them for eight, ten days, then you get clear of them. But I mean, you know you didn’t get ... and I say, they’re coming home, too. They’d put up with a lot coming home. But there was some pretty bad cases. You never knew just what you were going to run into.