BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of Health and Medicine (Walter Reed) -- Exhibit: Blood, Sweat and Saline (Korean War Medicine)

DC -- Natl Museum of Health and Medicine (Walter Reed) -- Exhibit: Blood, Sweat and Saline (Korean War Medicine):

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NMHMKO_110327_06.JPG: Diseased Kidney of 22 year old patient. The appearance of the kidney was the most important post-mortem indication of hemorrhagic fever. In a patient with hemorrhagic fever, it appeared pale, swollen and heavy, frequently almost double the weight of a normal kidney. Hemorrhage limited the kidney's ability to convert blood waste into urine. Compare the darkened patches in the diseased kidney to the 22-year-old soldier on the right to the normal kidney on the left.
2. NMHMKO_110327_08.JPG: Normal kidney
3. NMHMKO_110327_19.JPG: Korean War Another Front: Contending with a Mysterious Disease: As the opposing forces in Korea settled into trench warfare in June 1951, hospitals began admitting patients with a mysterious set of symptoms. Patients complained of high fever, headache, and mild depression. Red spots appeared on their arms and trunks. They drank heavily due to thirst, but despite administration of intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration, they got worse. Their skin became flushed as their capillaries dilated and their body temperatures and blood pressure dropped. As they went into shock, their vision blurred and they slipped into delirium, convulsions or coma. Confronted with an unexpected epidemic, military doctors mobilized to better understand what became known as Epidemic Hemorrhagic Fever. Drawing on clinical research conducted in Korea and Japan, doctors found that hemorrhagic fever profoundly affected kidney function and the blood vessels' ability to retain plasma -- with often fatal results. Consequently, they developed a new treatment approach that greatly restricted the amount of water given early in the course of the disease, in order to minimize a buildup of fluids in the body. This new approach, which seemed counter-intuitive, drastically improved outcome.s By 1952, the fatality rate from cases of Epidemic Hemorrhagic Fever in Korea had plummeted from twenty percent to less than five percent.
4. NMHMKO_110327_20.JPG: Plaster cast showing fourth degree frostbite of the foot
5. NMHMKO_110327_28.JPG: Cold Front: Protecting the Troops from the Elements: As the war ground on in Korea in the winter of 1950-1951, soldiers were frequently pinned down by enemy fire in harsh subzero conditions. Service-members with wet feet and wearing wet clothing fought in temperatures ranging from 20 to -30 F. Over the course of the winter, 5,600 frostbite patients had to be evacuated to Japan for treatment. The following winter, the Army formed the Cold Injury Research Team to study how frostbite might be prevented and why certain Servicemembers seemed more susceptible to frostbite than others. Unlike previous efforts, it was an attempt to study cold injury in the environment as it occurred. The research team found that wet clothing dissipated body heat, and that Servicemembers who had been immobilized or fatigued were especially vulnerable to frostbite. Based on these findings, the team concluded that improved training and management of troops in a cold environment could easily prevent many cases of frostbite.
6. NMHMKO_110327_30.JPG: Challenges: During the Korean Conflict, the goal of military medicine was to preserve the fighting force. Physicians, nurses, medics and medical staff shared responsibility for: * protecting troops from injury and disease, * providing the best possible medical and surgical care to the sick and wounded, * determining if a servicemember should be returned to duty by forward treatment, or evacuated out of a combat zone for further care, and * recommending and applying standards to decide whether a servicemember should ultimately be separated from the military. The Korean Conflict presented several unique challenges for those involved in the practice of military medicine.
7. NMHMKO_110327_31.JPG: Korean War -- Coping with the Climate: Korea was a land of oppressively hot rainy summers and subzero winters. The terrain varied from steep mountains to flatlands with race paddies. In the five years preceding the war, Koreans endured epidemics of smallpox, cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, and malaria. Accordingly, the military faced the problem of protecting soldiers from the effects of a variable climate and keeping them healthy in a disease-rich environment.
8. NMHMKO_110327_33.JPG: Developing an Infrastructure: In 1950, South Korea was an undeveloped nation. The lives of most of the people revolved around rural villages. Roads were rough, buildings were in decay, and electricity existed only in the larger cities. As a result, the military had to figure out how to establish state-of-the-art hospitals in primitive conditions and move patients around when there was no system of roads.
9. NMHMKO_110327_35.JPG: Finding Doctors: After World War II, America demobilized its military. Since the private sector offered physicians better pay, more professional opportunities and superior working conditions than the military, recruiting doctors was difficult. By June 1950, the Army needed an additional 1,729 physicians. War in Korea led to the passage of a doctor draft law, and hundreds of newly commissioned physicians had to be integrated into a rapidly mobilizing military. Even so, the military continued to experience shortages of doctors in some units, which affected the quality and level of medical care available in Korea.
10. NMHMKO_110327_37.JPG: Korean War: Overview: On June 25, 1950, communist North Korea invaded South Korea, quickly overwhelming its defenses. The United States joined the fighting in defense of the South under the banner of the United Nations, along with small contingents of troops from twenty-one other countries. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the Soviet Union) and the People's Republic of China, meanwhile, backed the North. Viewed by the United States as an opportunity to make a stand against the spread of communism, the conflict marked a turning point in US-Soviet relations and the Cold War period. Just less than five years after the end of World War II, America was at war against in a nation many had never heard of and where America's interests were vague. It was a war fought under the authority of the United Nations, but not the US Congress. Although officially called a "police action," it was a war in everything but name. By 1952, the military situation had stalemated into a war of attrition. The war ended in 1953 where it had started, at the 38th parallel. 103,284 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were wounded during the Korean conflict.
11. NMHMKO_110327_44.JPG: At the Front: Getting Care to the Troops: The military had long recognized that the sooner the wounded receive surgical care, the better their chances of survival. Experience gained in World War II led to the deployment of surgeons close to the front lines in Korea. At the same time, the increased use of helicopter ambulances ensured that the seriously wounded received surgical care within two hours of wounding. These innovations allowed early intervention and saved lives. The mortality rate of the wounded reaching hospitals dropped from 4.5 percent during World War II to 2.6 percent during the Korean Conflict.
12. NMHMKO_110327_48.JPG: Korean War -- Battle Front: Protecting the Troops from Trauma: Since the chest and abdomen contain many vital organs, any wound to that region of the body is particularly serious. Trauma to the chest, for example, can cause a fatal wound to the heart. Perforation of the chest cavity can cause the lungs to collapse, making it difficult for a patient to breathe. During the Korean Conflict, the military developed, tested and deployed several new pieces of body armor to protect troops in combat conditions. The introduction of these new forms of body armor decreased chest wounds by sixty percent and reduced the severity of those wounds that did occur.
13. NMHMKO_110327_56.JPG: The T-52 Vest: After Operation Boar, the Army developed an all-nylon vest in 1952 that, unlike the doron vest, could conform to the body's contours. The Army sent 1,400 of these vests to Korea to test their effectiveness. In one trial, the vest proved so popular that the research team lost control of them. Since there were not enough vests to issue to each soldier, the wounded were often relieved of their vests that reached forward aid stations before the research team could evaluate their effectiveness. The research team was able to conclude, however, that T-52 was more effective against shrapnel than it was against bullets. Armored vests worn by servicemembers today derive from the T-52 prototype.
14. NMHMKO_110327_59.JPG: The M-52 Armored Vest: Based on the results of Operation Boar in 1951, the Marine Corps immediately put an improved version of the doron vest into production. Infantrymen preferred this new vest because its plates provided greater stopping power and better coverage of the torso than other models. In the winter, they also discovered that the vest could keep them warm for hours if the plates were heated in a stove.
15. NMHMKO_110327_64.JPG: The Doron Vest: Although body armor using doron -- a high-density fiberglass -- had been developed during World War II, it was never used in combat. In 1951, a joint Army-Navy research team was dispatched to Korea to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptance of doron vests under combat conditions. Fifty vests were worn by over 6,000 soldiers and marines during a two-month test period known as "Operation Boar." Infantrymen considered the vest's extra protection desirable, despite its bulkiness and weight.
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2011 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used the Fuji S100fs camera as well as two Nikon models -- the D90 and the new D7000. Mostly a toy, I also purchased a Fuji Real 3-D W3 camera, to try out 3-D photographs. I found it interesting although I don't see any real use for 3-D stills now. Given that many of the photos from the 1860s were in 3-D (including some of the more famous Civil War shots), it's odd to see it coming back. Trips this year: Civil War Trust conferences (Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN), New Jersey over Memorial Day for my birthday (people never seem to visit New Jersey -- it's always just a pit stop on the way to New York. I thought I might as well spend a few days there. Despite some nice places, it still ended up a pit stop for me -- New York City was infinitely more interesting), my 6th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Ego strokes: Author photos that I took were used on two book jackets this year: Jason Emerson's book "The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow As Revealed by Her Own Letters" and Dennis L. Noble's "The U.S. Coast Guard's War on Human Smuggling." I also had a photo of Jason Stelter published in the Washington Examiner and a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. Number of photos taken this year: just over 390,000.
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