"EVACUATED" FROM GALLIPOLI

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2662, 6 January 1916, Page 6

"EVACUATED" FROM GALLIPOLI

AN ENTERIC PATIENT EXPERIENCES OF A NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER. Perhaps the commonest complaint next to dysentery experienced by our soldiers at Gallipoli .was enteric fever. When a man lias been sent to hospital from the trenches he has, in the language of the dug-out, been "evacuated," which is one of the dozens of new applications given to words during the war * Here is the personal experience of one man who was "evacuated," and hated it, and incidentally it gives the impressions of a soldier in the throes of enteric

"About tho middle of October I caught a cold, but took no notice of it-, but about a fortnight after I began to go off my tucker, but bucked myself into tho belief that I was still all right. But I got so weak that I reported, sick to the doctor, and received the usual dope—pills! Six of one sort and three of another, to be taken at intervals. Ask some of the boys who have gone back—they've all had 'em! Following day no improvement—given another assortment of pills; the third day still another brand. The fourth day I felt pretty miserable, and reported to the doctor again. _ He examined me, and gave me a chit which read "Acuto bronchitis,'_ and sent me to the 3rd Field Hospital. I arrived there very exhausted, and was subjected to another examination, and given another chit, marked 'Severe influenzal' I was beginning, to believe that I was going to be a famous case, on which no two doctors could agree. I was packed off on shanks' pony to the Ist Australian Casualty Clearing Station, a walk of '21 miles. It felt like forty. From there I could not he evacuated, as tho sea was too rough to permit of any shipping being done. I was feeling pretty bad when at the Clearing Station, and after spending a night in blankets alive with vermin, I was evacuated at 7 o'clock the next morning with about 50 others—wounded and sick. "We embarked on the hospital ship* Nevassa on November 2, and after being given a hot salt-water bath, I was put to bed. I left on tho 3rd for Lemnos, and after a short stay there proceeded on, and arrived in Alexandria on the 7th. I was kept on a milk diet on board, and on landing was given a red ticket marked 'Enteric' ; but by this time I did not care what was marked on my tickets. 1 felt like the carrier of all the diseases that plague mankind. But that red ticket made me kick myself for having reported sick at ail. If I had hung on it might have turned out to be only mumps. Anyhow, there I was a cot case, and was taken from the steamer to the auto-ambu-lance in a stretcher. As I was carried down the gangway a lady placed a small canvas bag with a Red Cross on it on the stretcher. This bag contained soap, flannel face-cloth, writing paper, envelopes, pencil, a packet of cigarettes, and matches. I arrived at the loth General Hospital here (Alexandria) at 4 p.m., was washed all over by an' Australian sister who knew her business, and put to sleep like a kid Now I'm on what they call the "no diet stunt,' that is, all milk food and a few milk puddings, with a sup of paraffin now and again. The nurso thinks the lubricator a joke, and always laughs at the shudder as we drink the stuff._ ■ Now my' temperature is getting right down to normal, and Im on chicken broth. Sometimes you have to imagine the chicken. One of the fellows said that the chicken had only put its-foot in it yesterday, and then pulled it out, but to-day *it got right in, and we could taste it good and thick. lam the only New Zealander in the ward. There are four Australians, a Royal Marine Artilleryman, ono of the R.A.M.C., and two belonging to K.'s Army. With such a mixture there is always plenty to talk about, and arguments and bets are of daily occurrence. Sister says there is more row ill our ward than' in all the rest of the hospital. These sisters and volunteer nurses are very nice.' The former are mostly from New Zealand and Australia, and the latter are mostly well-to-do young ladies from England. lam down for a passage to England for a change. ( I was given the chance of going to' New Zealand, but thought I may iiever get another ] chance of getting 'Home.' "