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[Page 76]
has little hope for him but is going to give him a fighting chance.
May 20
I am glad to say I have got my two patients up on deck; the atmosphere down here is simply frightful and everything filthy.
One of my cases is a man called Dench, he has been shot in the head and is both deaf and dumb.
May 21
In the cabin next to where are my two patients is a wounded Turk shot in the lungs – it is truly heart-breaking to see him gasping out his life and unable to do anything for him.
May 22
On deck 6.30 a.m. Patients are lying here just as they were when they left the trenches, with all the filthy and blood-soaked clothes still upon them. I must get them washed somehow, so I get the orderlies, who don't seem to have thought this was necessary, to discover all the basins they can and get to work washing the patients.
I take one of my patients, Miller, to the operating theatre and help with the operation. Dr Fiaski Jun. is the M.O. in charge. I nearly faint through weakness and dread shaking the surgeon's hand while he is operating on this very dangerous case.
Dr Fiaski tells me that if this operation was being performed in a London Hospital , it would have been considered truly marvellous.'
Dench is now able to walk but is heart broken at losing