Friday, February 03, 2006

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM! Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 18: Medevac from Cu Chi to Japan

I was stable enough to travel a few days after my surgery, so I was transferred first to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh and then to a hospital at the Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon. I stayed in each of them for a couple of days. Then finally to 249th Evacuation Hospital in Camp Drake outside of Tokyo, Japan. I stayed there until December 3, 1968.

The 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh

During the Vietnam War the 93rd Evacuation Hospital admitted 73,023 patients, treated 9,353 battle casualties, and had over 232,581 out-patient visits.

Tan Son Nhut Airbase outside of Saigon

249th Evac Hospital in Japan

One of those stops, I don'’t remember which one specifically, I was transported to the airport in a bus set up like an ambulance.


As they were loading me on the bus, the tube that ran from my catheter to the bag, got caught on something pulling it most of the way out, but not all the way. I screamed bloody murder which of course, caused everyone to stop dead in their tracks.

The nurse came over frantically asking “WHAT’S WRONG! WHAT’S WRONG!”

“The catheter! The (insert expletives here) catheter!” I could barely breathe it hurt so much, so that was said rather quietly and breathlessly.

The nurse pulled back my covers and saw what had happened and quickly inserted the tube back into my bladder. When she did that the pain almost stopped. Then (insert expletives here) came forth from my mouth in a never ending tirade. I’m sure they all felt badly for what happened, but I was pissed and made that perfectly clear.

During the first ten days or so I was wounded, my wounds were cleaned and flushed out with a saline solution a few times a day in an to attempt to prevent infection. The larger wounds were packed with a sterial packing to keep the wounds from starting to heal and close. The process to clean them was very uncomfortable if not done carefully. The wounds were fresh and nerve ending were exposed. If the medic or nurse clening them got too rough with the Q-tips when cleaning them out, it also hurt tremendously. Everyone was very careful and the few times it started hurting, they backed off and gave me a chance to rest. I was also drugged up pretty good so that helped a lot. Except this one time in the hospital in Tan Son Nhut the Evil Nurse Kratchet got a hold of me causing more (insert expletives here) to spew forth from my mouth.

Evil Nurse Kratchet must have been having a bad day or something because she comes over and tear’s off with the bandages, rips the packing out of the wounds, of course it sticks like hell to my wounds and hurts removing it if you don’t flush the wound with the saline first and go slow. Then Q-tips rammed into my wounds. Guess what I did? (insert expletives here), lots of them.

(Okay, maybe she didn’t do it exactly like that, but you get the point, it hurt a lot if they weren’t very careful.)

“Hey, take it (insert expletives here) easy! That (insert expletives here) hurts!

That out burst quickly got the medic assisting the nurse to stop her and the doctor to come over to see what was wrong. “Get this (insert expletives here) away from me, she’s (insert expletives here) killing me!” I yelled. The doctor sent her away and told the medic to finish up. The rest of my time there I never even saw her again.

A day or two later, I was loaded onto a medevac plane with a lot of other people for the trip to Japan. We were packed in like sardines just like in this picture. There were also seats for people that were ambulatory on the opposite side of the plane.



I don’t remember very much else about this week or so because I was drugged up pretty well. I do remember that during the flight to Japan, a nurse, another cute one and also a brunette as I recall, helped me eat a boxed lunch with fried chicken, something like a meal you’d get at Kentucy Fried Chicken. I couldn’t sit up, and could only use my right hand because my entire left arm and hand were bandaged so I needed her help.

I will always remember how nice it was being fed by that pretty woman, no matter why she was feeding me. Laying there looking up at her and into those very pretty, caring eyes. Knowing I had made it out of that God forsaken country alive and was on my way home again. That plane may not have been the one I arrived on, but it was a plane taking me back to the 'World' none the less. I was going home and was very, very happy.

6 comments:

jiggs said...

I posted your navel pic on the blog. Thanks so much for the pic.

Wenchy said...

Hey Tony - The catheter part is just ouch, ouch, ouch. Was the worst part of me in having c-sections... the catheter.. HATE THAT.

Those hospital beds look kinda scary, like one could fall on another.

Hope you well my friend.

Deadly Female said...

I'm glad you made it home safely xx

CozyMama said...

wow, what a story...hey i did an audio post today. check itout

lime said...

oh gaawwwd. i felt your catheter and wound pain. (c-sec with anasthesia that was not functioning). you made me wince and cringe. yeah i wanted to insert some expletives for you too!

so glad you ended the chapter with the pretty nurse feeding you. seems the least that coudl haev been done for you given all the other suffering youwent through!

Fae said...

the part about the catheter made me wince and tears spring to my eyes.

The part about Nurse Kratchet made me nod and remember the Nurse that almost killed my Dad with a Double shot of Morphine. Her statement when she realized what almost happened, "He would have gone to sleep for real long time!" exactly like that, I thought my mom was going to choke her to death.

The part about the kind and hot Nurse. Made me smile and be glad that at least some one gave you the kind of attention you needed.

~Fae