Michael's Shower

Guam

It has been a while since I did a post on the Doc.

On the eventful night, Doc pulled himself onto the medivac chopper out bound camp. The closest hospital was in DaNang. Once the chopper landed, Doc got more funny looks and had to find his own way off. It must have been excruciating to drag oneself without help.

Can't they see that I am wounded too? Doc thought.

With the last bit of strength he had left, Doc propped himself up against a pole. By now his right leg was completely numb.

Finally someone noticed and asked if he was alright.

Doc was bandaged up and flown to Guam where he spent a few months recuperating. I nhis own words:

    The next thing I remember I was lying on a table, all of my closes were gone and they were getting me ready for surgery. I overheard one doctor say that the nerve to my right leg may have been cut. That's why I couldn't feel anything.
    They gave me a spinal block so that I couldn't feel anything from the waist down, and off to the operating room I went. They repaired what they could and removed the rest. They also found that the nerve had not been cut but was only bruised. It would still take a few weeks before I could walk without any help. And it was over a month before the wound would heal.

On the way to Guam, Doc had an interesting experince:

    I left Vietnam, along with the rest of the wounded, for Guam. Because I was still unable to walk I was carried aboard the plane on a stretcher.
    We had one refueling stop in the Philippines. When we landed everyone aboard the plane left except me, I was still strapped down. There was a lot of activity around the plane and when a crewman came by I asked him what was going on. "Just refueling," I was told. Why did everyone have to leave the plane? In case of a fire they didn't want anyone aboard. "What about me?' I asked. "Don't smoke," was the crewmen's reply.

Rosco sent him a letter or two about his new assignment as an integrator. Sounded like fun, but the Doc was in no hurry to get back.

Doc was temporarily reassigned to the hospital there, but eventually found himself back in the jungle.

Posted by Michael at January 25, 2004 09:07 AM