The Physician to Soldier Pipeline · Episode 9 of 14 · 25 min
Meatball Surgery
Five mobile army surgical hospitals existed on paper before July 1950, and none went to Korea. What went instead was improvised: locally assembled units numbered in the 8,000 series, the 8055th deploying with ten doctors against an authorized 126. The episode shows how the most famous military hospital of the century was a temporary patchwork staffed by pulled-out residents.
Who's who
- Albert E. CowdreyArmy historian and author of The Medics' War
- Percy J. CarrollArmy medical officer who created the portable surgical hospital in 1942
- Isaac J. TenderFirst commander of the 8055th, who took it to Pusan
- Phyllis M. LaConteChief nurse of the 8055th
- Edgar Erskine HumeChief surgeon, Far East Command
- George E. Armstrong+1 more episodeArmy Surgeon General whose 1951 memo produced a famous mortality comparison
- Frank A. ReisterArmy statistician whose 1973 study gave the mortality figures used
- H. Richard Hornberger8055th surgeon who wrote the novel as Richard Hooker
Where it happens
- Pusan, KoreaWhere the 8055th landed on July 6, 1950
- Chipyong-ni, KoreaSite of a surrounded collecting station in February 1951
- Wonju, KoreaSite of the first forward artificial kidney in 1952
- Fort Sam Houston, TexasLocation of the five-week course for medical officers
Timeline
- 1942Percy Carroll creates the portable surgical hospital
- October 28, 1948Table of Organization sets a sixty-bed tented hospital of 126 people
- July 1950The 8055th lands at Pusan; three units committed by 26 July
- September 9, 1950The Doctor Draft is signed into law
- March 1952First artificial kidney at a forward hospital, at Wonju
- July 27, 1953Armistice ends the fighting
Still debated
The famous mortality comparison from a 1951 memorandum is genuine as a document but unreliable as a statistic. Who directed the Wonju renal center is unnamed in the official record, and no clean total for physicians serving in Korea exists.