THE HAPPY HAT Read Online Free Page B

Why?”
    “I’ve told you before Slater. All first cast changes on Nam returnees have to be cultured for Asian germs before we chuck them out. Put it in a trash bag liner and I’ll take care of it. God, I’ve made it quite clear about first cast changes throughout the hospital haven’t I. Do you want to get transferred elsewhere–like the TB ward? I have to log all first cast changes with LCDR Skagan.”
    “No. I’m sorry. I forgot.” Corpsman Cecil Slater sealed the bivalved long leg cast remains in a clear plastic bag and took off his latex gloves. “I’ll leave it right here.”
    “Good. Look, if you violate the infectious disease rules here, I’m the one responsible. I get hell. I get busted to a lower rank and then there’s LCDR Skagan–the cast Nazi.” The explanation was his dismissal speech. Perkins looked at his patient. “Okay, sergeant–all done and better than new. Your stitches are healing well and there’s no sign of infection. You want the stitches I removed as a souvenir?”
    “No thanks.”
    “The next cast after this one will be a short walking cast.” Perkins wheeled the patient back onto the ward to his bed and went back for the bagged old cast. He smoothed the clear plastic to look at all the dates next to the signatures. It was unusual to get a cast applied at Subic Bay unless the patient required more surgery or there was a problem with the first cast from Nam–which there wasn’t.
    There it was, a “good luck Adams” with a date that preceded the Subic Bay arrival. Sergeant Adams’ cast was in fact a Vietnam applied plaster which now presented as an opportunity Corpsman Perkins couldn’t resist. Perkins logged the cast as a Subic Bay application and put it in a laundry bag which he placed in his locker.
    Perkins closed the door and took out his small notebook. He entered the long leg cast with the day’s date as going to regular trash disposal as if it was not a Vietnam applied dressing. He’d make the call to his outside connection as soon as his shift was over. All casts validated as being put on in Vietnam had special disposal rules.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
    Admission and Triage
     
    Regardless of how the air-evacs to Queens Naval were pre-sorted and dispatched from Fort Dix the train patients and the bus patients had to undergo further scrutiny and assessment. Some physical status categories may have changed from stable to critical. Post-surgical patients with medical problems might be properly assigned to medical wards to take care of fluid and electrolyte imbalances and a surgical consultation obtained. Medical patients may have to be further separated into gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, pulmonary or infectious diseases and then dispatched to the appropriate hospital wards.
    The JMOOD and JNOOD generally met the train and checked the patients before they were allowed into ambulances to the ER for admission. The timing was critical because they were always short staffed and couldn’t manage the huge bus loads and the train at the same time. It never seemed to be a problem. The JMOOD’s paging light blinked off-and-on–580, 580, 580. Queens Naval had a light paging system instead of a beeper or PA system. When the light number 580 flashed Dr. Paul Norman called the operator and got his message.
    “Dr. Norman here.”
    It was Zettler. “The two train patients are here sir. We’re at the ER.”
    Norman approached the JNOOD. LT (JG) Minnie Zettler and Norman had served many watches together and had attended many train air-evac arrivals. “You said you had something else with the train patients LT Zettler?”
    “Only one queer situation with the ortho patient in the total body cast. He has no IVs or indwelling Foley. He also came with his own corpsman according to this roster Dr. Norman.” Zettler and Norman used appropriate military and professional decorum in front