Lest We Forget: Medical Care and Anesthesia during the Second World War in the Pacific. The Interaction and Cooperation Between New Zealand, Australian and American Armed Forces

Abstract

Soldiers from New Zealand, Australia and the United States fought alongside the people living in the South Pacific under desperate conditions to save and protect their countries. Fighting in the Pacific Islands was a new experience. There were mountains, jungles, tropical heat and diseases to combat as well as the enemy. Traditional medical treatment and anesthesia had to be modified for the conditions. Ether evaporated in the heat, and patients were often dehydrated and weakened by poor diet and tropical disease. Thiopental, a new intravenous anesthetic, was widely used. The technique of freeze-drying plasma and the invention of penicillin helped save lives, but the casualty rate was horrendous. Hospitals built by the US army are still functioning in many small Pacific Island countries, and the experience of working alongside military doctors gave the local medical officers the knowledge to develop efficient surgical and anesthetic services after the fighting was over.