Medical Treatment

My Lovely Mary,

This war has compelled me to see things that one would only see in their nightmares. As the rate of casualties in our unit increased, I was assigned to help the stretcher-bearers transfer the wounded bodies of our soldiers to the nearby hospital. Some of the bodies were ones of my friends who had gone over No Man’s Land. It was sickening to see them suffering. If hell could ever be on Earth, this is it Mary. I saw my fellow boys with every type of injury one could imagine. They were wounded so severely! One’s flesh was cut so cruelly and deeply, you could see his veins and organs. Another had third degree burns on his back and spine I couldn’t imagine how he had survived so long. It was not easy to identify if an individual was dead or alive either. Some had to wait hours and days wounded and laying on the muddy ground until we got to them! We carried these soldiers to the casualty clearing station in the trenches or field hospitals nearby, one by one, which took hours. Many strong and respected women who were nurses handled the patients, tending to their needs all day long, urging them to keep fighting and to keep their heart beating. If the soldier has received basic medical surgery and his chances are looking good, they are later transferred to a larger base hospital usually by truck. The sanitation in the casualty clearing station is very, very poor. More soldiers here die of disease than of the injuries themselves. Most of these soldiers suffer from ‘shell shock’ where they are so psychologically disturbed that no one can help them except themselves. I think those individuals refuse to live anymore. Other very common diseases here are trench foot, trench fever, diseases from rats, and symptoms from poison gas. Trench foot is a painful infection caused by the muddy, cold water grounds in the trenches. Trench fever is caused by the lice. I am grateful I have not gotten anything close to this yet. I am also thankful that I have not yet experienced the horrors of ‘going over the top’. I don’t want to end up lying in these hospitals, Mary. Not before I come back home first.

Jacques DuBois

Sources:
Canadians at War 1911-1918 By: Donald M. Santor
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_age_of_the_mass/04.ST.01/?scene=5