Surgery on Submarines: WWII Appendectomies on Subs

[@vvogt4252]

Excellent Video. Very Good Information.

[@peterharband326]

That was a very informative video Paul and crew. Good chow and java for all!

[@Norbrookc]

I used to work with surgeons as a research tech, and as a result I assisted in a number of surgeries as well as performing quite a few myself on animals. What I always remember was what one senior surgeon told me, that "We could train a monkey to do surgery. It's knowing what to do when things go wrong that makes a surgeon."

[@jrmotorsports5532]

As always, thank you for the history lesson.

[@BB12659]

"Run Silent, Run Deep." In that film Clark Gable insisted that he have as true a set as was possible, and that included the specifications as mentioned, the control room, the men, etc. That gave me my first sense of a submarine appendectomy. Thanks, Paul!

[@CrazyManAI]

“Glad I’m not sick” - Bob Hope

[@gbonkers666]

great movie!

[@SOU6900]

I honestly didn't know they had Excedrin back then. I always thought that was something that came out within the last 10 or 15 years or so.

[@bobw222]

There is a great scene in the movie "Ensign Pulver" that deals with an emergency appendectomy for the Captain of a ship under "primitive" conditions.

[@paulfarace9595]

We didn't have any brandy liquor for anesthesia ... Evan drank it. Burl Ives wouldn't fit on the table either! We did have glass marbles!😅

[@jeffsr8300]

Thanks Paul; another great way of showing the world that Sailors do whatever it takes to get the job done.👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@StephenGeorge-n5s]

Great video! I was good friends with Lt. Franz Hoskins who was on the USS Seadragon and participated in the appendectomy on that boat. He administered the ether in that operation. Hoskins went on to become a physician and he was my doctor for about a year when I lived in Tacoma, Washington. My aunt was his head nurse when he was in private practice there. If I remember what he hold me, the operation on the Seadragon was also performed in the officer's wardroom.

[@craigbathurst1185]

I saw a B&W movie on this subject

[@stinker43]

TU, Paul! IDK how many apendectomies might have needed to be done on subs, but apparently several. I wonder also about spleen, kidney stone or for that matter any other frequently seen surgeries might have been needed.

[@scottthurman3625]

WOW, what a great video!

[@1boortzfan]

Thank you Paul for another glimpse into the brave lives of our U.S. Sailors.

[@donaldhill3823]

To this day the Navy doesn’t place Doctors on Submarines as crew. Doc is still an enlisted corpsman. Helicopter transfers are super dangerous on Submarines due to potential electrostatic discharge caused by the Helicopter hovering over the Submarine.

[@bigsarge2085]

What's a little slice-&-dice between friends?

[@stickinthemud23]

Although it was a surface ship, honorable mention must be made to the appendectomy performed on USS RELUCTANT, the ship on which Ensign Pulver served. 🤣

[@jastrapper190]

There is a scene in the movie “Master and Commander” on a British Man of War during the age of sail. Great scene. Where the ships doctor is performing “brain surgery” (on the open deck where there is light) on a battle wounded sailor… and the entire crew… everyone on the deck is gathered round in one big gaggle… watching this totally foreign and interesting procedure… like a train wreak… until one of the “chiefs” comes along and yells for everyone to get back to work and stop lollygagging and gawking… and once they do… he proceeds to stop and stare… lollygagging and gawking. Lol.

[@jastrapper190]

I imagine on a small boat like a submarine… for all hands… it was only by “orders” that the entire crew would not be packed into the operating space… wanting to “watch” their shipmate’s life being saved through the practice/miracle of medicine.

[@jastrapper190]

I once had an ingrown nail as a Marine Infantryman in the middle of combat in 2003 as we were invading Iraq. And it was our Platoons Navy Corpsman’s job to “fix it”. So as part of his training he was delegated the knowledge and tools and medicines to perform a minor surgical procedure. Which he did successfully in the field. On me. He took a “Caine” which was lidocaine without ephinephrine and “deadened” the nerve leading to my toe. Then he took the back of a surgical probe and like a little crow bar… jammed it under the nail and separated it from the tissue. Then he took a pair of surgical scissors and cut the nail from the edge all the way down to the cuticle. And then took a pair of foreceps and “yanked off” the entire section of nail that was ingrown. Common procedure. But not typically allowed by anyone but a Doctor because lidocaine (drugs and injections) were involved. But it went well and I was back on my feet within the hour. Feeling much better about life. But in that case… my entire platoon was all gathered around to watch “doc” work. Lol. Human nature is human nature.

[@NoewerrATall]

I was waiting for Paul to faint at the sight of "blood". 🤭

[@stevewindisch7400]

I once woke up in the middle of cataract eye surgery, and told them don't be such bogarts ;) That was terrifying.

[@jastrapper190]

Excellent video. Many thanks to the Dr and all his “assistants”. Great idea for a video and performing a mock “procedure” was very informative and entertaining. I could not imagine being “ordered” to provide a level of care completely out of my wheelhouse… where “mistakes” can cause life/limb. It’s always strange to have to do such damage “surgery/cutting” to a body in order to fix it. Something very foreign and revolting about the idea… and I’m sure actually doing it takes a lot of mental fortitude unless you’re a surgeon who does it for a living.

[@zxggwrt]

I love this history definitely one of the most interesting episodes!

[@jastrapper190]

I always find it great and entertaining when “doctors” have to delegate and relinquish their monopoly on the practice of medicine and “helping”. Extended Field Care. Maritime situations. Space exploration. Etc etc. there are all types of situations when they have to admit that what they do isn’t their domain only… an impossible task and responsibility for anyone who doesn’t have decade long education in medicine. They refuse to push down care to EMT’s. Medics in the military. Civilian first responders. In many cases where it’s debatable if the “good” that relinquishing the monopoly of medicine to first responders/laymen… vs the “harm” that might be caused. If in space for instance… and a man is going to be “un alive” unless care is given… it’s worth taking a chance that life saving care might be “allowed” and outweighs doing nothing/certain bad outcomes. The medical profession has multiple times stated that they would just prefer to let the ill man be “un alive”… because… reasons… they are the sole providers…. Nobody else. It’s like a prestigious country club that won’t allow in the “poors” because they want to keep the club “respectable”.

[@Tuning3434]

Counterpoint: field care where 50 out of 100 people are saved would be a great accomplishment, medical care where 50 out of 100 people under treatment would be criminally under-performing. Let alone what that performance does to the mental health of first responders themselves. First rule of First aid is that you do your best to stabilize the patient with the training you've received. If the patient lives or dies is down to luck, you are just trying to positively influence his chances. In proper medical care it is possible to make individual medical personal responsible for a patients well being, because they are in a situation where they can monitor and respond to the patient based on their own observations. That goes a step beyond having a positive influence by basically following the manual. Furthermore medical professionals generally do not deal with healthy young individuals like soldiers, but a general populace with other underlying ailments which might even not have been diagnosed yet. First aid responders will not be held accountable for not recognizing 'the exception that proves the rule', because they are not put into a situation where they would have that opportunity and time to diagnose to that extend. Medical professionals are, and are held accountable for malpractice if they fail to act on that extra level of responsibility. In Europe we tend to send out so called Trauma Response Aids to cases where there is a high risk that general EMT might not be able to stabilize victims, that usually involves flying in a trauma surgeon in a helicopter, and stabilize the patient till . More remote places might use military first responders instead, that would also be able to airlift patients instead. Furthermore it is still more common to have General Practitioners / family physician here that take care of most medical problems. They are actually trained to an even higher degree, adding another 6 years of training after medical school. As I understand there function is close to the General Medical Officers used in the US military.

[@jastrapper190]

@@Tuning3434 counterpoint? What is it? You typed an essay and I don’t understand what it is. My point is that medical “practitioners” need to relinquish their “practice” to more and more people. Much of what they do isn’t rocket science and a monkey can be trained to do it. For instance… tens of thousands of Marine infantryman are allowed free rein to push fluids. Lactated Ringers or Sodium Chloride Saline or hextend etc. They are allowed to use angiocaths and start an IV and administer fluids. For blood volume replacement/expansion or for dehydration. If a grunt can be trained to properly do this in the middle of a blood soaked filed (where the good it does far far outweighs the chance of injury… like pushing an empty IV tube full of air into a patient… which nurses and doctors also occasionally do by mistake)… why is this considered ok? But for that same infantryman… once a civilian… he’ll be headed to jail for doing the exact same thing. It’s nonsense. And it’s solely the fault of the medical “profession”.

[@zxggwrt]

I’m a toe surgeon and so I can tell you cutting off the big toe is referred to as a bigtoendectomy.

[@georgemartin1436]

Appendectomies on Submarines? SIGN ME UP!

[@randyogburn2498]

It's kinda interesting though that they had scalpels, ether. & such but weren't supposed to cut on anyone.

[@paulfarace9595]

You need scalpel and ether for non-surgical cases ... like the big toe amputation done on Cod 😮

[@Russojap2]

What a fun and fascinating episode! I'm pretty sure I've seen more than one submarine movie where this procedure was performed. 🤔😂

[@TX-biker]

Interesting topic

[@danquigg8311]

Can you give the names of the 3 sub commanders? Thanks

[@JoeNicks389]

Does this happen in today's Navy? They are on patrol for 3 months or more.

[@davidroby7290]

Edward Platt. Chief

[@barnaclebill1615]

I’m shocked they didn’t announce “Viewer Discretion Advised” for the sensitive nature. 😉

[@paulfarace9595]

Cutting into sheets with ketchup ... and some black and white images of surgical incisions didn't seem all that horrific. Sorry.

[@stickinthemud23]

@@paulfarace9595There were some color images too, but those were also fine. The whole thing was fine. Well, I think the “patient“ was turned around the other way, but that is so minor I shouldn’t even have mentioned it. But I’m a submariner, so I did anyway. No discipline. Great episode.

[@charinabarcillo9160]

As a retired ER nurse Excellent well done

[@charlesc.stirkjr.7608]

What you meant to say was Hospital Corpsman ………… “The U.S. Navy Hospital Corps was created in 1898, with hospital corpsman used as a generic name for the applicable personnel while various other official names (including hospital apprentice, hospital steward, pharmacist's mate) were used for the rating; after World War II, hospital corpsman became the official name for the rating.” “Previously, corpsmen were commonly referred to as loblolly boys, a term borrowed from the Royal Navy, and a reference to the daily ration of porridge fed to the sick. The nickname was in common use for so many years that it was finally officially recognized by the Navy “ en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_corpsman

[@NYrender]

Per Soviet Union submarine rules doctor is the third person to assume commanding role after commanding officer and chief.

[@jastrapper190]

The “Political Officer” has requested to speak with you about your betrayal and insulting of the Motherland and his capacity/authority Comrade…

[@NYrender]

@@jastrapper190 KGB officers aboard are the nastiest people you could ever meet in your life.

[@bruceb4349]

Wow, you made that sound scary..