Re: Injectable Morphine

[Ed Evanhoe <evanhoe1@korean-war.com>]

Blake,

During the early part of the Korean War evacuation of the wounded was 
generally a slow process involving transporting the wounded guy by 
man-carried litter to a battalion aid station from where he could evacuated 
by ambulance/litter jeep over very poor roads to the regimental clearing 
station (if the wounds were not too serious) or to the nearest MASH.  Later 
the helicopter sped up the evacuation process from battalion aid station to 
MASH, thus saving a lot of lives.

But to your question about if morphine helped alleviate pain during the 
evacuation process:  It did and without it many would have died from shock 
induced by moving the guy. As for the four-hour period until the next shot, 
field medics were supposed to tie a tag to the casualty and note the time 
he was given morphine on the tag. This generally was done but rarely looked 
at down the evacuation chain until the casualty indicated he was in extreme 
pain. At that point the casualty would be given a second morphine injection 
is sufficient time had passed from his first injection.  I suspect 
something similar would happen today in a mass casualty situation.  I also 
suspect the information you quoted in the current manual about doing this 
and that was put there to make the chairwarmers feel good. <LOL>


Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523
Life Member: Special Forces & Special Operations Associations
Author: DARKMOON: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War
Web site:  http://www.korean-war.com