A red cross symbol on the ground

Heroes Remember

A red cross symbol on the ground

Transcript

Interviewer: One of those stations that you were at... Well we would preform normal military duties like we, we didn't drill of course, in a station like that, but we would get the troops up at regular times and have our meals and carry out any whatever paperwork was necessary and then we would receive casualties, whenever they occurred. And at that, those units, even those far forward, we had a helicopter landing pad, a landing area I should say, it wasn't a formal pad. And if we received word by radio that casualties were coming in by helicopter, we put out a Red Cross symbol on the ground. And helicopters, little Bell helicopters which carried only one or two stretchers outside of the cabin on the bottom. And they would fly in and drop them there. And they'd wait til we sort of did a triage, which was an evaluation situation. The triage system, is essentially taking quick look at wounded and you decide that at one level, this man isn't going to survive. At the other level, this man has got a few scratches and he just needs some simple treatment. And in between are the more severally wounded, who will much more, a lot more attention. I'm not implying that you would completely abandon the man you knew that was going to not survive. You had to prioritize the, the way you treated them. And if they were sufficiently injured, that it was better for them to be attended in a Mash hospital, for instance, or further back, we'd evacuate them by the same helicopter sometimes. If however, they were such that we felt, we could do some immediate treatment and get them prepared to go further back, probably by land ambulance, we would do that. We would take them in to the tents briefly and patch them up a little bit and get them ready for travel on, on the land. Land ambulances travel fairly far forward, of course as you realize. And then the helicopters even further forward. So if a man was severely injured in his unit, they would radio for a helicopter and within about 15 minutes, they would have a helicopter on the ground, who would pick up the wounded. And the regimental medical officer would send them, where he thought it was appropriate. He might even bypass the casualty collecting post, if he felt it was absolutely essential that the man get to more sophisticated treatment quicker. If we landed, tried to land helicopters at night, we would, we'd set up flares. So, the man could get a half decent crack at landing, you see. Again, we would put out the panels, so the flares would illuminate a small section of ground with the Red Cross, made by panels, in the centre and . . . Most of, most of the evacuations seemed to occur in the, in the daylight hours. I suppose that was a matter of convenience at the front, you know. They would have to go forward and pick up casualties and they could do that better in the daylight hours, than they could sometimes at night, but, but they occurred both night and day. I guess, I was, one of the things I felt about it though that if you were going to have wars, you should, you should conduct them in a way that minimizes the loss, all sorts of loss. Not just the loss of life, but the loss of limbs and eyes and so on, you know. And the, the way we handled the situation medically, I think, did, did that. You know by evacuating people quickly from the front, we were able to save limbs, we were able to save lives, of course many times too. But limbs was really something quite interesting, because while the man might limp, he had a leg to limp with. Whereas even in the early part of World War II, they were amputated because there was just no hope of saving them, you see, they couldn't get to the front as quickly and couldn't evacuate them as quickly.

Description

Dr. Vanner talks about helicopter evacuation, triage and routing patients for appropriate treatment.

Dr. George Vanner

Dr. Vanner was born in Toronto, June 14, 1927. After completing his public schooling in Belleville and Trenton, he entered the University of Ottawa Medical school. He had been a member of his local militia, and when war broke out in Korea, he joined the regular force as an army Lieutenant. Upon graduation in the summer of 1942, Dr. Vanner was sent to South Korea. He was a field surgeon until a truce was declared. After that, Dr. Vanner spent some time in the hospitals around Hiroshima. Once in Canada, Dr. Vanner established a solo medical practice which allowed him to utilise the diverse skills he had acquired in Korea. He is now retired and has recently joined the Korean Veterans Association.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:40
Person Interviewed:: Dr. George Vanner
War, Conflict or Mission:: Korean War
Location/Theatre:: Asia
Battle/Campaign:: Korea
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: British Commonwealth Division
Rank:: Captain
Occupation:: Surgeon

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A red cross symbol on the ground

Heroes Remember