Bit and Brace brain surgery came to Chester Russel’s memory when interviewers Brown and Bridgeman asked him about danger on the Highway. When Pvt. Moore walked too near a working dozer, a falling limb crashed into his head. “So this Dr. Stotts”, Chester remembered, “he finally got up there where we had him on… he was up in the brush…”
Stotts peeled back Moore’s right eyelid, and “… the thing was… like it was… the man was dead. Then he opened his left eye and it was clear.” Moore, Stotts explained, had a blood clot on the left side of his head.
Dr. Stotts had no choice and a lot of guts. If they didn’t relieve the pressure quickly Moore would die. He called for a brace and bit and there on the ground he “took and… drilled three holes” in Moore’s head in a triangle.
Interviewer Brown, “In the guys skull?”
Chester, “In his skull.”
It worked. The crude holes relieved the pressure. And they moved Moore back down the road to the hospital in Fort St. John. He did well for a time, then, when fluid started collecting in his lungs, Dr. Stotts stepped up again.
An officer suggested that a field air compressor, one of the big ones on wheels, might solve the problem. They wrestled one to the side of Moore’s cot, Stotts rigged it and “it did the job.”
A few days later, Chester even got back to visit Moore, found him sitting up and doing fine.
Then some “big shots” flew in, raising hell and threatening to court martial Dr. Stotts for making the bit and brace operation. Determined to fly Moore back to civilization, they paid no attention to Stotts’ objection that a high-altitude plane flight would kill the man.
Pvt. Moore died “about three hours out of Seattle.”