NO TORTURE

Two marines and a Vietnamese scout come rushing in to the  medical bunker
unexpected  with the obviously wounded Vietnamese solder.  He has a  hole in his
trachea[windpipe] from shrapnel. A major  spray of blood comes gushing  out with each exhale and I see  he is obviously in severe
shortness of breath, in danger of asphyxiating from  blood. accumulating in his lungs with each inhale.  Also his eyes are in an
absolute terror and panic as  he looks at me. I had never seen this before. He managed to keep flailing his arms, trying to keep the corps men on and myself away.

One of the Marines tells me as they leave that the solder believes he is there to be tortured
since that is what he was was going to happen if captured.

The only ones who understand a word of Vietnamese in the bunker  are the scout and the wounded prisoner.
I repeatedly tell the scout to tell the prisoner I want to help him, to save his life. Each time the scout talks to
him, the wounded soldier goes again into another wildly failing episode as if fighting us for his life.

I am meanwhile  hurriedly preparing a surgical tray with expanders, scalpels, etc to stop the bleeding and secure an
airway by doing the tracheotomy before he suffocates from his own blood. By necessity, this has to be done in full view of the soldier.

In the context of Vietnam, I knew there was a 50-50  chance the scout was still telling him I really was going
to torture him if he did not give information about his combat unit and their plans.

To this day, I do not  do not know and will never know what was being said. If
he thought to the end that I was there to torture him or to help him.

All  of this was happening  in 3-4  chaotic minutes.

Finally did the only thing which seemed  save his life in the midst of chaos of blood spraying, prisoner terror, etc,
Pushed the scout aside, had 6 corpsman hold the wounded guy down and gave him just enough of a dose of IV sedative
 I dared to which would sedate him but not fatally   suppress his already reduced breathing ability.

Good part of the picture. It worked. Tracheal tube put in under sedation. Stable when helicopter picked him out .Every reason to believe he survived.

Not so good part of the story. Was uncomfortable to be seen as part of a possible system of medical  torturing. I knew it was not true
of any American doctors in Viet Nam.  Had real suspicions  whether it was also not true of the South Vietnamese or Korean 'allies'. But the wounded soldier lumped
myself and them  as part of the same adversary.

A day in Viet Nam. Dr. Paul L., Then Captain, USMC