Battlefield Readiness

The wounds of the battlefield casualty often cry out for the most advanced skills of modern medicine. But the battlefield surgeon has always worked against forbidding odds. Aseptic surgery is practically impossible in a tent operating room of the sort that has gone almost unchanged for 100 years. The canvas is far from airtight, and temperature control is so bad that an infusion bottle might freeze and shatter in mid-operation. The lab work that is essential in today's medicine and surgery is usually out of the question.

Now all such problems can be relegated to the past. Last week at the Army's Camp Bullis, near San Antonio, medics demonstrated a portable, air-conditioned hospital--aseptic operating room and all. Under a miniature mushroom cloud that signified a theoretical A-bomb attack, while scores of "casualties" splashed with blood-red paint waited for treatment, the 20-bed unit was made ready within half an hour.

Zippered Joints. The hospital arrived on trucks and trailers--a load of bulky packages, some as big as 7 ft. by 8 ft. by 12 ft., weighing up to three tons. From one, corpsmen took four bundles that looked like oversized parachutes and laid them out neatly, edge to edge, on clear ground, then hooked them to an air hose. Solemnly, the big bags shook out their wrinkles as they were inflated and rose into the familiar, half-round shape of a Quonset hut. The four sections were joined together and the joints zippered airtight. Out of the other packages came 20 beds and all the gear needed for as many patients. Only eight men were needed for the job.

In an equally impressive performance, another crew set up the operating room, which had come in a slightly smaller package. In the center was a versatile operating table adjustable to all nine standard surgical positions. Overhead, from ceiling mounts, hung three groups of lights, of 1,500 foot-candles each, which can be aimed at different parts of the body if a man has scattered wounds and needs surgery on his head, trunk and legs at the same time. The table weighs only 200 Ibs. as shipped, but need not wobble because there is a basetank that holds 100 Ibs. of water.

Added Pressure. The Army calls its new hospital MUST, from Medical Unit Self-Contained Transportable. Impressed observers could suggest only one potential drawback. What would happen under a strafing attack? Would a few bullet holes cause leaks in the walls and let the whole pneumatic construction collapse? The Army had not overlooked the obvious; added air pressure can compensate for most holes.

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