Date Posted:Tue, March 05 2024, 7:40:20 Author:kgp Subject: QOTD for Tuesday, March 5, 2024 - I like this section becaue we rarely seem to see Denny lose his s***. He usually sounds (in my head) so calm and reasonable. There's also the ingrained politeness in the midst of it. "Not at all." I've read other stories about regimental surgeons that echo this, the rivalry between units and preference given.
The following quotation is from Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved. Chapter 75 The Cider Orchard
“They are idiots,” he said, so pale - with rage, I now realized - that he could barely speak. Regimental surgeons, they call themselves! A good quarter of them have never seen a man wounded in battle before. And those who have are barely capable of anything in the way of treatment save the crudest amputation. A company of barbers would do better!”
“Can they stop bleeding?” I asked, taking his hand and wrapping it round my patient’s arm. He automatically pressed his thumb to the brachial artery near the armpit, and the spurting that had started when I took my own hand away stopped. “Thank you,” I said.
“Not at all. Yes, most of them can do that,” he admitted, calming down just a little. “But they are so jealous of privilege - and so much affiliated with their own regiments - that some are letting a wounded man die because he is not one of theirs and his own regimental surgeon is otherwise occupied!”
kgp