I just got off the phone with one of my brothers from VN. I talk with several of them once or twice a month and emails almost daily. We talked about an incident in 1968 which is hilarious now but not then. We were coming out off a 5 or 6 day patrol and we walked through a small unnamed village. There was a commotion and we stopped to see what was going on. The village chief (mayor) spoke a little English and conveyed that one if the village women was in labor. These small villages didnt have doctors but their babies were delivered by midwives. We learned that their midwife and her husband had been executed by the Viet Cong because she had accepted some medical supplies from an American unit. He kept asking us for a bác sĩ which is Vietnamese for doctor. My team leader looked at me. I was the team medic. I had dealt with gun shot wounds, shrapnel, immersion foot and a number of other maladies but never child birth. We had a class on it in medical training at Ft. Sam Houston, TX and had watched a movie on it but this was the real deal. I went inside their hut and there was mom lying in bed in agony. Suddenly I went into my emergency mode calling for clean blankets and for the 10 people standing around to unass the room. Then I learned that this baby had the audacity to be CROWNING!!! I told my team leader to get a battle dressing and scalpel out of my med kit. I also told him to take two pieces of gauze roll them into string-like and hold on to them. Here comes the baby. Im sweating like a moslem in church. The baby is delivered the cord is cut and tied off and mom and baby were fine. Out team leader got on our radionics and contacted the MEDCAP unit for that area. They sent a chopper to take mom and baby to our evac hospital because the infant mortality rate was so high. We also caught a ride in the Huey. I tried to portray to my team members that it was no big deal. But it was a big deal. I felt pretty good. A new life. Hopefully still around...
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 00:52:22 +0000
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