Conduct Under Fire by John A. Glusman

Author:John A. Glusman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Nosu was known as the “Mad Butcher” of Ichioka, and his behavior struck the navy doctors as nothing short of bizarre. To cure diarrhea and dysentery he placed punks on the abdomens of patients, who were held down until the embers burned out, leaving scars the size of smallpox vaccination marks. He encouraged POWs experiencing “painful feet” to soak them in buckets of ice water or even snow, which often resulted in frostbite and required amputation. But there was another experimental procedure the Japanese performed that had even more serious repercussions.

It was May 9, 1943. The weather had warmed up, and a group of patients was sitting outside in the sun picking lice off of their undergarments. Second Lieutenant Nishiura Kazuhiko, the Japanese medical officer, strode by in high, black polished boots with a “cheese knife”—his samurai sword—swinging at his side. Four guards accompanied him. He told Jackson of his plans. The “painful feet” patients, he determined after reading a German medical text, were suffering from primary erythromelalgia, an unusual vasodilation disorder characterized by burning feet or hands. But the cause of primary erythromelalgia is unknown. Nishiura decided to treat it surgically. In an attempt to decrease or eliminate the pain caused by the syndrome, he would divide the sympathetic nerves in the abdomen. The procedure, called a sympathectomy, was a difficult and potentially dangerous operation.

Jackson was vehemently opposed to the idea—and was beaten unconscious for airing his opinion. Nishiura proceeded to select eight men, among them Simon S. McCloud, Staff Sergeant Carl E. Western of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, H. Gay of the Royal Navy, and John Kidd, the feisty yeoman who had been knocked down by MacArthur as the general dashed into Malinta Tunnel during an air raid on Corregidor. Kidd was so bloated from wet beriberi that he could barely sit. His legs had swollen to twice their normal size. His abdomen was distended from edema, and his feet and toes were excruciatingly sensitive.

The patients were loaded into the rear of a dump truck and driven half an hour away to the Osaka Military Hospital. The first to be operated on was McCloud. After nearly an hour and forty-five minutes, it was Kidd’s turn. He entered the OR, where he saw McCloud lying on the floor, surrounded by bloody gauze. The steel operating table was filthy. The doctor wore soiled cotton gloves. He injected Kidd with a spinal anesthetic—and hit a nerve that gave him a jolt like an electric shock and caused his legs to shoot straight out in front of him. An assistant held Kidd’s feet while the doctor continued with the injection, then made the first incision in Kidd’s abdomen. A geyser of fluid shot out of Kidd’s saturated tissue where ordinarily there would be fat. Kidd was turned on his back, and the doctor made a seven-inch incision. After thirty minutes Kidd began to regain consciousness. He tried to get up and was punched over the left eye and slammed back down onto the operating table.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.