Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 623 War Catalysis ([-])

Strictly speaking, in this war with the Spaniards, if only the land battlefield in La Plata is concerned, the biggest trouble for the people on the east coast is undoubtedly the issue of battlefield hygiene.According to statistics, as of today (September 9), the East Coast Army has killed 15 people (excluding hired soldiers) in battles in Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Corrientes, Asuncion and other places. Army, Servant Army), the number does not seem very large, but if combined with the number of people lost due to illness, this number will be doubled properly, that is, 392 people-casualties caused by diseases to people on the east coast It actually surpassed the enemy's bullets (906% of the total deaths due to disease), which has to be thought-provoking.

The reasons for the soldiers’ illness and death are various, but they mainly cover several aspects: 500. The environment is harsh (many times camped in the wild in wild areas, and there are many swamps and heavy humidity); [-]. The living conditions are simple (tents, [-]. Lack of clean drinking water sources - when marching in the field, you can only drink the water in the water bag you carry with you, but when fighting in summer, the sanitation in the water bag is obviously very worrying.Especially before and after the offensive and defensive battle of Santa Fe, both the East Coasters inside the city and the Spaniards outside the city were hit by a rare autumn disease. More than [-] soldiers and civilians in Santa Fe died of this unknown disease.In addition, diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid, beriberi, and malaria have plagued people on the east coast from beginning to end. Insufficient medicines and treatment methods have caused a large number of non-combat downsizing of soldiers. The Military Medical Office of the Joint Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of Health have been criticized Severe criticism and accusations.

Under such circumstances, the Ministry of the Army and the Ministry of Health quickly established a joint working group and sent people to Santa Fe, where the epidemic is most prevalent, to conduct research and try to find out the problem.Although the current medical rescue system of the East Coast Army is far from perfect, basically every company station has two health workers and a field first aid station.

But then again, when they are usually stationed at home, they have everything, the conditions are good, and the number of sick soldiers is small, so one or even two health workers are almost enough.But now it is during the war, a company of more than 200 people has two full-time health workers who are responsible for cleaning, disinfecting, and bandaging the wounds of the wounded soldiers. At the same time, they also spend a lot of time taking care of the sick soldiers.

Generally speaking, the company commanders of each company during the battle also equipped their health workers with a certain number of Krandi servants, but these people can only be responsible for transporting the wounded from the front line, and do nothing else. I don't even know how to put on a bandage, so what the hell is going on!

On the other hand, even though the wounded who were rushed back from the front line were sent to the field hospital in the city by the health workers of each company, their situation still did not improve much.Without him, there is a lack of doctors and medicines, and there is also a lack of professional surgical instruments and talents. Under such circumstances, the wounds of many soldiers continue to be infected, and various complications arise.

Faced with such a difficult situation, the Ministry of Health immediately dispatched 20 students from the surgical operation class of Dayuhe Higher Medical College, which is still in the experimental stage, to Buenos Aires—the only place where they can do so at present. It is an absolutely safe rear.There is not a single surgeon among the time-traveling crowd, and it took so many years of time-traveling to cultivate these [-] "talents" in surgical operations.In fact, to say that they are talented people is really flattering them, because all their medical knowledge comes from the only doctor in the crossing crowd, that is, the ship doctor Wang Liao-a man with very suspicious medical skills.Therefore, their level can be imagined.

However, no matter how poor the level is, it is a doctor who has been trained for several years. It is also a second knife that has a certain feel after using a large number of Guarani people for human anatomy experiments. It is not a big problem to do some simple surgical operations.After they arrived in Buenos Aires, they immediately set up a high-level field hospital to receive all kinds of wounded who needed surgery.

The instruments they use for surgery are quite primitive. Some special steel processed from the crucible, such as scalpels, pliers, tweezers, etc. - of course, the quality is not comparable to that of later generations; simple bandages, no special sutures for surgery, and only Boiling water and alcohol cannot prevent postoperative infection; the only painkillers are opium specially approved by the state-it is said that this "drug" has been strictly prohibited before, but at this time, in order to meet the needs of the frontline war, I don't care so much Yes, first send to the field hospital to relieve the pain of the soldiers who need surgery. If the quantity is insufficient, immediately ask the Dutch to increase the order.

Since the establishment of this high-level field hospital, operations have been performed on more than 800 wounded so far. They are basically simple surgical operations. Generally speaking, the success rate of the operations is relatively high, reaching more than 70%. The probability of infection also exploded, and many soldiers died after being infected one after another.

However, the doctors of the Ministry of Health are also short of anti-infective drugs, and they are helpless. They are limited by the fact that the Henan Glass Factory has not been able to produce high-magnification microscope lenses, so they have not been able to start searching and researching on penicillin and other bactericidal substances.They can only sterilize surgical instruments, hemostatic bandages and gauze over and over again, while wiping the wound with alcohol to minimize the risk of infection.

And because many soldiers who need surgery are far away in Santa Fe, Corrientes or even Asunción, the distance is inconvenient for transshipment, and the number is relatively large (the frontline combat troops are dense, and the total strength of the servant army is more than [-] at most. People, so there are many wounded and sick), so under the strong request of the Ministry of War, three domestic shipyards have started to build three medical ships.The three medical ships are divided into three classes, A, B, and C. Among them, the class A transport ship is the highest, and it specializes in transporting seriously wounded and seriously ill patients. It is also called a hospital ship. It is equipped with surgeons and medical equipment to perform operations; A medical ship equipped with professional nurses and simple medical equipment can provide a certain degree of care for the wounded and sick; a class C medical ship is only equipped with some temporarily trained health workers, and is specially used for the transportation of lightly wounded and mildly ill patients.

When the war first broke out, the Ministry of War had just tentatively submitted a report on the construction of an ordinary medical transport ship (class C ship), and it had not received much attention.However, after the war entered the stage of large-scale attack and the climate in La Plata turned bad, the emergence of a large number of wounded and sick made both the Ministry of War and the Executive Committee feel troublesome. It is somewhat inappropriate and unprofessional to transport the wounded, so the major shipbuilding companies were immediately instructed to start researching and designing specialized medical transport ships.Today, one year after the outbreak of the war, the number of such medical ships has rapidly increased to three, and one of them is a first-class medical transport ship for critically ill patients capable of performing surgery, which has greatly promoted the progress of the medical cause of the Eastern Republic of China.

At the same time, the vial infusion technology was also used on a large scale in the East Coast for the first time—possibly the first time on this planet.A large number of soldiers suffering from cholera, dysentery, and colds huddled in the specially opened isolation wards, and a large number of female nurses recruited from the local area—this was also the first time that female nurses were used on a large scale on the East Coast—professionalized them. Nursing and giving them infusions at the same time.

To be honest, bottle infusion technology is not high-tech, and the principle is very simple, relatively speaking, the requirements for technology and materials are not very high: glass bottles are made of ready-made molds, and infusion tubes are sterilized whale intestines. The needles are specially made by hand (machining cannot achieve the required precision), and normal saline is better prepared.

In this treatment method, perhaps the only technical link is how to accurately find out where the blood vessels are, and this can obviously be achieved through a lot of practice.After the hanging bottle infusion technology was used on a small scale and successfully cured some patients suffering from dysentery and cholera, it was immediately promoted among the health workers in the whole army.At the same time, the only two hospitals and dozens of clinics in the country were also notified, and immediately sent people to Dongfang and Ping'an hospitals to study, so as to promote it nationwide.

You must know that in the past, this technology was only tested in the small area of ​​Dongfang County Hospital.At that time, it was delayed for several years due to the difficult processing of needles and the selection of materials for infusion tubes. It was not until the beginning of last year that the experimental infusion therapy for Guarani convicts was started in the Changshan hard labor camp—because there was an outbreak of cholera. Many people died.The results of the experiment are generally mixed. The infusion tube sewn with whale intestine basically meets the requirements for use, but the hand-made needles are a bit of a hindrance. The thick needles greatly increase the risk of patients being infected with germs.And because the needles are not easy to make and need to be reused, even if they are sterilized many times, the threat of cross-infection cannot be completely eliminated.

However, although there are many problems, there is no time for the Ministry of Health to continue to improve. The large number of sick officers and soldiers on the front line of the war cannot afford to wait.Therefore, with the endorsement of the military department, the Ministry of Health finally agreed to widely promote the unperfected bottle infusion technology on the front line.As for the resulting infection, side effects, etc., those are small details. After all, you can't just watch the sick soldiers weaken day by day and remain indifferent.

Although the war is not a good thing, it has obviously accelerated the popularization of some medical technologies, systems and equipment in the east coast.For example, the Ministry of Health is researching blood type identification and blood transfusion technology, which is very important to the war. At present, Dayuhe Medical College under the Ministry of Health is conducting in-depth research, hoping to make a breakthrough in the near future.

(End of this chapter)