This is one of the times when the metal identification tag, which man in the United States Navy — officer and enlisted man alike — wears about his neck, is invaluable. Here are inscribed the man's name and rating, his blood type — in case blood transfusions are necessary — and the date of his inoculation against tetanus. And, as further proof of identity, the print of his right forefinger. In addition to these data, a man who has been given first-aid treatment at a field dressing station or by a Navy hospital corpsman is promptly tagged before being sent on to the hospital. The tag tells the medical officer, who examines the patient, exactly what first-aid treatment has been given — morphine, sulfanilamide, or blood plasma.
It is enormously important that the first examination of the injured be made by a medical officer of long and extensive experience. Always there is shock to be looked for and guarded against. To send a patient to the operating room while in a state of shock is to court disaster. Abdominal and head injuries need to be wisely appraised. Many head injuries seem slight on casual examination; yet these, if not recognized and properly treated, will result in fatal complications.
All scalp wounds are serious, and sometimes it is a question for the surgeon to decide whether the metallic foreign body should be removed or not. Actually, there is a fifty-fifty chance that the man who has a bullet in his brain will develop epilepsy.
During World War I, Dr. Harvey Cushing improved the surgical technique then followed, with the result that the mortality of head wounds was reduced from 60 per cent to 20 per cent. With the use of sulfa drugs, this mortality rate has now been cut considerably lower.
Naturally, the powers of the entire hospital staff were stretched to the limit on that fateful December 7. "Though occasional shell fragments and machine-gun bullets zipped through our temporary ward building," said Captain Hayden, "all hands were so busy they had no time to think of themselves. Fortunately, nobody was injured."
