230 Miracles Ahead! 



administer first aid, how to lift a wounded man to avoid fur- 

 ther injury, how to protect a fracture with splints. They 

 have even amputated a leg or arm in order to save a life. Fur- 

 thermore, these men work fast. In a few minutes a wounded 

 man may be picked up and carried to a battalion hospital unit 

 four hundred to one thousand yards back. The fallen man 

 usually is picked up in less time than it takes an ambulance to 

 reach a street accident in one of our large cities. 



The battalion aid station is a miniature hospital on wheels 

 which goes wherever the soldier goes. It is staffed by two 

 physicians and assistants, and has operating instruments, anes- 

 thetics, sulfanilamide, opiates to relieve pain, hot drinks, and, 

 most important, blood plasma to combat shock and loss of 

 blood. 



Blood Plasma 



One of the greatest medical advances in the past twenty 

 years is the use of blood plasma in transfusions. Until a few 

 years ago a blood donor had to be matched with the person 

 receiving the blood. If the two did not agree in type, clots 

 were almost sure to form with fatal results. Now, however, 

 plasma is used. This is the amber-colored liquid that remains 

 after the red and white cells have been whirled out, as milk 

 and cream are separated in a dairy, or allowed to settle. The 

 water content of the plasma then is removed, and it is reduced 

 to a dry yellow powder. This powder can be preserved, in 

 vacuum, indefinitely and it can be restored to its natural state 

 simply by putting the water back through the addition of dis- 

 tilled water. 



The use of plasma saves time, and time is all-important in 

 treating wounded men. No longer do we have to worry about 

 blood types, because the substances that cause clots when 

 blood types are mixed occur in the cells and not in the plasma. 



