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VOL. 4/ISSUE 10
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016
Doctor discusses trauma care in Vietnam Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
A driver loses control of his car on an Interstate and it flips. Within minutes a helicopter is on scene airlifting him to a trauma center. His survival was likely decided during the Korean and Vietnam wars when military doctors learned much about medical evacuation and put it into practice. Dr. James Harrell was a trauma doctor in Vietnam in 1967. He said doctors couldn’t save everybody, but they had all they needed to try in every case. “The system was set up so good, we were never in a position in that emergency room that we had to say, ‘We can’t take care of that, move onto him,’” he said. Harrell will be at the Peter & Julie Cummings Library to present Medical Care in Vietnam on Wednesday, Jan. 27. In addition to talking, Harrell — a confessed shutterbug — will have photos to show from his time with the 25th Infantry Division and later the 65th Combat Engineers. “Jan. 1, 1967, everybody was watching a ballgame, and I was getting on an airplane in Jacksonville to go to Vietnam,” he said. Harrell got his M.D. from the University of Florida in 1964. In interned at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and joined the Army. He served at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, but made his way back to his Florida to marry his sweetheart, Gayle. She’s now a State Representative, Dist. 83. After serving in Vietnam, the doctor returned to the University of Florida to complete his residency and moved to Stuart in ’71. He was one of the first doctors at Martin Memorial Hospital. Harrell retired almost 15 years ago. Back in Vietnam, Harrell said he was amazed at how much thought and effort the military put into saving lives. “I was just so proud how everything was set up and how we treated people,” he said. “We didn’t receive many burns, thank goodness, but you’d be treated in our hospital and then transported 30 miles away.” Transported to specialized care with a high likelihood of surviving. It’s difficult to tell when the idea of battlefield
Photo courtesy of Dr. James Harrell The military developed much of today’s emergency trauma care in Vietnam. Veteran military doctor James Harrell will be at the Peter & Julie Cummings Library on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 10:30 a.m. to noon, to present Medical Care in Vietnam, a lecture accompanied by photos he took when there in 1967. The photos he’ll show are appropriate for all ages. medical care came into being. But over centuries healers increasingly learned that the speed with which an injured person gets any care is critical to survival. For example, the authors of “Treatment of War Wounds: A Historical Review,” published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, estimated based on historical records that during
the Greco-Roman period a slight majority of those who sustained arrow wounds survived, whereas sword wounds were almost always lethal. The difference being that arrow wounds were usually encountered while armies were far from one another and healers could get to the wounded. Sword
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‘Mustang’ vet takes plunge into home-inspection business Mary Kemper STAFF WRITER
mkemper@veteranvoiceweekly.com
Though Francis “Frank” Campbell already had a background in business with
his family, he credits his Army service with playing a big role in his own business, A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections, which he just took over last July.
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