大象传媒

One day when we were going on duty, (we used to have to go down through a covered way- it was quite a long walk down from the Nurses home), and when we got down to the main corridor, there were all the soldiers lying on stretchers in this main corridor who鈥檇 been brought back from the front. The reason I tell you this is because we had a ward which was for plastic surgery. The Consultant was a gentleman called Mr. Grocott.

Mr. Grocott from the North Staffs, went down South to observe the work of this Professor Archie McIndoe, and from that the 鈥楪uinea Pig Club鈥� was formed. It was for RAF Gentlemen who had been terribly, terribly burned and he did the plastic surgery on their faces and other parts of their body.

Our consultant, Mr. Grocott, came back after observing Professor McIndoe鈥檚 work and we had the Soldiers taken into this plastic surgery unit for Mr. Grocott to operate on.

In those days, the treatment for burns was really quite different 鈥� you had huge baths of saline which you put the patient in to soak them. We had other people from the outside world as well, not just soldiers. You then treated them with a type of Vaseline gauze, and it was soaked off in the bath. Then, after they鈥檇 had their grafts you鈥檇 treat them with Penicillin cream- that was invented in my time. That was much better.

It was very eerie going into this ward at nighttime because some of the grafts they had skin taken off from a good part of their body, and it was taken off in a sort of a roll, and it was attached to another part of the body so that it got the blood supply. Then it was taken away from where it was originally placed, and it was used to graft on to burns so that you got a living tissue.

The other way of grafting was 鈥� they had a very sharp type of knife which took the patients skin, and they used to spread it out on this Vaseline gauze and put it on the burns afterwards 鈥� when they were clean enough.

It was fascinating being in Theatre and watching the plastic surgeons doing their work 鈥� I liked it.

They didn鈥檛 only do burns 鈥� they used to do little babies who had got cleft palettes, and this surgeon I speak of, Mr Grocott, he used to say 鈥渘ow this is a little girl, we鈥檒l make her look beautiful鈥� and he took infinite care in doing their lips. I thought it was lovely.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Patricia Davies and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Pat's stories:

• 1) I suppose it was inevitable鈥�
• 2) Getting used to being on the wards
• 3) The unchanging rota
• 4) Othopaedic Wards
• 5) The Miners
• 6) Keeping coffee warm in the sterilizer
• 7) Mouth gags and tongue clips
• 8) Dear Flower Girl
• 9) Theatres
• 10) The Nurse鈥檚 Home
• 12) Mice in the washing and other tricks
• 13) Enamel washbowls on your heads
• 14) Extra Work
• 15) Shake and Shake鈥�
• 16) Little Nurse
• 17) A lot of things were introduced during the War
• 18) Only two nights off
• 19) Making and Breaking
• 20) My little bucket and I
• My visit to post-War Germany

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