Just finished it. It's the biography of Jonathan Letterman MD, the father of military emergency medicine as practiced worldwide. If you have ever been near a MASH unit, a natural disaster or even a hospital emergency room, you have been exposed to and perhaps benefited from Letterman's ideas.
Letterman was the Medical Director for the Army of the Potomac during most of the Civil War, War of Northern Aggression, call it what you will. He's the guy that came up with the idea of planned field hospitals, aid stations, a dedicated Ambulance Corps that was an independent organization, and much more. From organizing the medical and food supply streams to designing the ambulances to establishing a system of accountability, he did it all. Interestingly, he resigned his commission before the end of the war, and went on to become the coroner in San Francisco. Probably sick of the bureaucracy.
Interestingly, for Letterman, a wounded soldier, no matter what side, was no longer a combatant, thus all were to be accorded the same care. This at a time when some surgeons insisted on treating those of their own regiment first!
The book itself is well written. I found it an enjoyable read over the course of a few days. More medical than military history.
Major General Paul Hawley, Chief Surgeon of the European Theater in the Second World War, said of Letterman, “I often wondered whether, had I been confronted with the primitive system which Letterman fell heir to at the beginning of the Civil War, I could have developed as good an organization as he did. I doubt it. There was not a day during World War II that I did not thank God for Jonathan Letterman.”
Recommended.
Jeff
Letterman was the Medical Director for the Army of the Potomac during most of the Civil War, War of Northern Aggression, call it what you will. He's the guy that came up with the idea of planned field hospitals, aid stations, a dedicated Ambulance Corps that was an independent organization, and much more. From organizing the medical and food supply streams to designing the ambulances to establishing a system of accountability, he did it all. Interestingly, he resigned his commission before the end of the war, and went on to become the coroner in San Francisco. Probably sick of the bureaucracy.
Interestingly, for Letterman, a wounded soldier, no matter what side, was no longer a combatant, thus all were to be accorded the same care. This at a time when some surgeons insisted on treating those of their own regiment first!
The book itself is well written. I found it an enjoyable read over the course of a few days. More medical than military history.
Major General Paul Hawley, Chief Surgeon of the European Theater in the Second World War, said of Letterman, “I often wondered whether, had I been confronted with the primitive system which Letterman fell heir to at the beginning of the Civil War, I could have developed as good an organization as he did. I doubt it. There was not a day during World War II that I did not thank God for Jonathan Letterman.”
Recommended.
Jeff
