Beri Beri

Heroes Remember

Beri Beri

Transcript

Well that was pretty rough stuff. Electric feet is what we used to call it. That was the dry beri beri and electric feet, I remember the first guy that I know of that got it was Max Moisey and he was in the same hut as ours and we’d see him rubbing his feet at night time. He’d be up like this rubbing his feet and rubbing his feet, and we didn’t know what he was doing and then other people started and we started to get sore feet, electric shocks and we class them as electric feet and Dr. Crawford said all you can do, the medical people said all you can do is just get relief whenever you can, however you can. So we used to put our feet in cold water, take the pain away and fall asleep a little bit that way with your feet soaking in the water and if three or four of us were in the same area of the water, the water would turn warm from the heat from our feet. Circulation problem was getting worse and worse because of this beri beri. Some fellas had beri beri that was wet beri beri which would swell up. One fella had his head swelled until something broke inside. Some terrible things had happened with that beri beri. I got the wet beri beri after we found out that heat was the best thing for our feet and I remember being with my feet the way they were and I put some, laying in the hospital hut with my feet wrapped up in blankets and Dr. Crawford came along with one of the other medical fellas and they took the blankets off my feet and, “Holy mackenaw, Harrison,” he said, “You gotta get... “ they didn’t have very much morphine but, “you’re gonna have morphine tonight.” Because my toes had split along the side and all this sort of white puss was coming out of them because of the water soakness. So that night I was in pain and the doctor came along and I got a shot of morphine. It was noisy and that in the hut but all of a sudden all the noise just quietened right down. I could just feel the pain coming from the top of my head and right out my body and out my feet and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. I went off to sleep I don’t know how long I slept. When I woke up my feet were still giving me hell but I never did go back to any cold water or anything like that again. Then my feet turned cold, my circulation.

Description

Mr. Harrison describes his experience with both dry and wet beri beri. Although he suffered with 'electric feet' from the dry beri beri, his worst experience was with wet beri beri, where the swelling from fluid in his lower limbs caused his toes to split open. He thanks his doctor for one night of morphine induced sleep.

George Harrison

George Harrison was born on April 4, 1920 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and was youngest of three children. His father died shortly after his birth, forcing his mother to place him and his siblings in an orphanage, where he was at times badly beaten. Learning this, his mother took her children back home. After completing grade 9, Mr. Harrison went to work to help support his family. Eventually, he gained employment with CPR Telegraph. On September 13, 1939, Mr. Harrison enlisted with Winnipeg Grenadiers, becoming a specialist on the Vickers machine gun. During the battle of Hong Kong, Mr. Harrison was made a sergeant, and was involved in deadly fighting. Along with the general misery and persecution suffered by all of the POWs, Mr. Harrison faced down both blindness and potential amputation of his toes.

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