Desperate Surgery in the Pacific War: Doctors and Damage Control for American Wounded, 1941-1945

Caring for the wounded in the World War II Pacific Theater posed serious challenges to doctors and surgeons. The thick jungles, remote atolls and heavily defended Japanese islands of the Pacific presented dangers to medical personnel never before encountered in modern warfare, as did the devastating new kamikaze attacks.

Sophisticated treatments, including complex surgery, were by necessity far removed from the fighting, requiring front line doctors to do the minimum--often under fire--to stabilize patients until they could be evacuated: "damage control," it would later be called. Navy doctors responsible for thousands of sailors aboard fleets in battle found caring for the wounded daunting or nearly impossible. Yet to save lives, medical resources had to be kept as close as possible to the action. This book systematically details the efforts and innovations of the doctors and surgeons who worked to preserve life under extreme peril.

Thomas Helling, M.D., is a professor of surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He has spent his career in clinical surgery and surgical education, with a special interest in trauma surgery and trauma system development. He was a member of the United States Army Medical Corps, serving nine years in the Army Reserves and receiving an honorable discharge in 2000 as a lieutenant colonel.