Category: War & Veterans
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Medics in World War II
Selection from Citizen Soldiers by Stephen E. Ambrose “Bravest man I ever saw . . . he came running right through the machine gun fire and put a tourniquet on my arm,” recounted an infantry man hit by a bullet that ripped right through his right upper arm. The medic got hit by the concussion…
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Facing fire: Burns and visibility in the two World Wars
Gemma BowsherLondon, UK The two World Wars that occupied the first half of the twentieth century are exceptional events primarily because of their immense loss of life made possible by new technical “advances.” This paper, however, is preoccupied with those who were forced to endure life beyond war, the soldiers and civilians who returned to…
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I’ll never forget
Ella Veres New York, New York, United States Author’s note: The Romanian veteran in my story is traumatized by the suffering he witnessed during World War Two battles, but in Romania PTSD is not very well-known yet. Listen, dear lady, I have one more year and I’ll turn 90. I was 18 when I fought in the…
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Boots on the ground
Daly WalkerBoca Grande, Florida, United States Lt. Colonel Stone’s pulse pounded from the adrenaline rush of the resuscitation. The career Army medical officer was in the trauma bay of a surgical hospital he commanded in Afghanistan. A Navy SEAL had been shot in the chest and femoral artery. Stone had stemmed the bleeding in the…
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Cancer diagnosISIS
Clemens SchmittBerlin, Germany Sensing the first symptoms and signs of a potentially serious development, diagnosing a manifest malignant state, and determining the adequate treatment in order to eradicate the disease at its roots and ultimately eliminate “the last evil cell“—that is what cancer medicine is all about.1 It resembles in some ways the strategy required…
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A writer and a doctor: What a physician’s account of Auschwitz can teach us about the ethics of story-telling in medicine
Christine HennebergSan Francisco, California, United States In writing this work I am not aiming for any literary success. When I lived through these horrors, which were beyond all imagining, I was not a writer but a doctor. Today, in telling about them, I write not as a reporter but as a doctor.1 The opening “declaration”…
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Psychological effects of warfare on veterans and their families
Brittany LewisJacksonville, North Carolina, United States We hear the terms PTSD and TBI often. When civilians think of these diagnoses they all too often picture a man home broken from combat, possibly wearing a long trench coat and carrying a gun in his hand, who may just fly off at any given moment and kill…
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Lest we forget
Bradeigh GodfreySalt Lake City, Utah, United States “I’ve always hated the Germans,” he said to the medical student standing next to me. He was approaching 80 years old, too young to have served in World War II. Besides, he had a slight accent that the student had correctly identified as Dutch. It was unusual for…
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A memorable veteran
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece It was nine o’clock on a Monday morning and this was my last outpatient clinic. By the end of the week I would be finishing my hospital duties and return home after several years of training in Britain. The first patient that day was a very pleasant seventy-five-year old man who walked…