1969: treating Vietnam war casualties.

Physical therapy at the Sixty-seventh Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon is varied and challenging, according to Barbara C. Reid, CAPT, AMSC. Essentially three types of patients are treated: the wounded soldier; outpatients from the field who have sustained knee, back, and shoulder injuries; and war-injured Vietnamese civilians.

Captain Reid reports that the soldier who is wounded is medically evacuated (usually in the late afternoon or evening) and is usually in the operating room within three hours. Most wounded soldiers begin some type of physical therapy the following morning--less than twenty-four hours after receiving their injury.

All patients with gunshot wounds or fragment wounds without artery, nerve, or bone damage are started immediately on range-of-motion and strengthening exercises. Those who have sustained thigh and calf wounds are also given those exercises, plus early ambulation, usually for weight bearing. In Vietnam, early means the next day. By the time the wounded soldier has his delayed primary closure, usually three days after injury, he has complete range of motion and is ambulating without any gait deficits.

If a soldier cannot he returned to duty within one to one and one-half weeks, he is sent to the Sixth Convalescent Center in Cam Ranh Bay for final rehabilitation, and is then returned to duty.

Treatment of the Vietnamese civilian is challenging because of his [sic] ignorance of medical care and the language barrier....

"A Therapist in Vietnam Describes

Challenging Work"

[Physical Therapy News]

Physical Therapy

1969; 19(10): 1115.