MacArthur's Spies by Peter Eisner

Author:Peter Eisner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-04-24T11:21:56+00:00

Giving Thanks

Tsubaki Club, Manila, September 29, 1943

FOR WEEKS, Claire had tried not to pay attention to the growing pain in her stomach. It was getting worse. She had been watching what she was eating and was following a bland diet; that meant rice and water and little else. Milk would have been soothing; eggs, meat, and other proteins would have helped but they were hard to find. She wrote it off to nerves—the pressures on her were taking a toll.

One Wednesday afternoon the club was not open yet as Claire and some of the staff were preparing for the evening. Suddenly Claire collapsed and nearly passed out, writhing in pain. Fely stayed with her and sent one of the helpers to fetch Peggy, who found her in agony in her bed, screaming and running a high temperature. They called in a doctor, who confirmed Peggy’s suspicion. Claire had a perforated ulcer—a life-threatening rupture in the wall of her intestine. She needed emergency surgery.

Wartime realities made the prospects grim. A surgeon was available, but transportation to the hospital was not. Private cars and taxis were not on the street. Peggy tried to commandeer the ambulance at Remedios Hospital, where she still worked, but the gas tank was bone dry. Gasoline was severely rationed and even emergency vehicles sometimes could not find any at all. The hospital had been using alcohol from the storeroom to run the ambulance but had run out of that as well. Peggy thought quickly and remembered that their friend, Mrs. Kummer, had a permit to be on the road with a driver and often was able to get a ration of gasoline to keep the car rolling. Mrs. Kummer said she could take Claire. The driver came and they carried Claire to the car. Doctors Hospital was closest, about four blocks from the club. By the time they got her in, Claire’s temperature was dangerously high and her vital signs were unsteady. Her personal doctor contacted a surgeon, who quickly went to work. Claire could be nonchalant after the fact. “Doctor Guerrero called in one of the best local surgeons, who operated without delay, removing a perforated ulcer and about six inches of intestines. I dimly remember when I came back to this world Doctor Guerrero joked, ‘Too bad, you haven’t got the guts you used to have.’”

The danger should have been over. Just in case, Claire’s friends kept a vigil. Peggy stayed as much as she could and monitored Claire’s progress; as she watched nurses come and go, she did some of the nursing herself. “At the end of the fourth day, the doctor said that I didn’t have to give the intravenous feeding every four hours, so that permitted me to go home after midnight and then come back early in the morning.”

At some point in the ordeal, when Claire knew she was seriously ill, she managed to give final instructions to Peggy. If I don’t make it, if something should happen, she told Peggy, make sure that my mother is notified in Portland; and take care of Dian.

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