Working

[Flight 33]

One day on a late hot afternoon we received an ambulance with a burn patient at the Emergency Room.  I was on duty.  Two way radio as usual had warned us of the coming casualty.
A Filipino maintenance worker was seriously burned in a chemical fire on base while
at work.  He had been treated with emergency first aid dressings and intravenous solutions at the scene by our medics from a nearby dispensary.  He was burned over 30% of his body. 
Upon arrival all available surgeons were waiting along with duty nurses and of course me and my fellow corpsmen.  I did what I was instructed to do in the way of preparation of meds and IV's, and the patient was taken immediately into surgery.  In the days that followed this poor fellow had to be often sedated and  burns dressed.  He was always in pain. 
In the weeks that followed I was transferred back to the General Medicine ward which included the burn section.
Our burn patient was still in treatment.  I was now a part of his therapy. 
Daily treatment included a special bath, preceded by pain relieving medication.  Then, while during the bath the painful removal of dead burnt skin.  A procedure known as debrisment if I remember.  His groans brought tears to our eyes at times.  But the treatments continued and after about four months or so, including grafting surgery, he was able to leave the hospital and go home. 
He recovered and was able to walk, use his arms, and even go back to work months later.
One day me and others of his care were invited to his home for a feast of very large shrimp, rum, and a banquet of fine Filipino cuisine.  We all got drunk, cried, laughed, danced, and hugged.  It was a wonderful get together and I'm sure, a great final therapy for all.
I'm awed and fortified with the knowledge that our doctors, nurses, and corpsmen can returned a seriously damaged human being back to life.  No, it won't be the original.  but it's a second chance for those patients, to be sure.