Doctor Stotts, forced to do surgery in the deep woods, cut through his patient’s scalp behind his left ear with a razor blade; drilled a triangle of three holes with a wood brace and a 3/8 inch bit; cut between the holes with a hacksaw blade removed the ‘plug’ and removed a clot. Not a normal surgical procedure—except on the Alaska Highway Project.
The doctors available when soldiers got hurt on the Alaska Highway Project had to be good—and creative. The soldiers worked a dangerous job, deep in the wilderness. The Far North woods didn’t offer a lot of medical facilities. A story from Chester Russel’s Tales of a Catskinner offers what might be the most extreme example.
A trailblazing crew, including a soldier named Moore, happened to be following a D8 as it powered into the trees. A tree limb broke loose, flew back over the top of the dozer and struck Moore on the head. He fell to the ground, unconscious.
A medical corps doctor named Stotts, made his way to the scene; evaluated Moore’s condition. “There is no way that we can get him out of here in time to save him . . . we can operate here.” Stotts commenced the procedure described above.
Placing the soldier on a cot and erecting a tent over him, the soldiers left him in Stotts’ care and returned to work.
Four days on, Doctor Stotts found Moore’s lungs filling with fluid; sucked the fluid out with a rigged-up air compressor. Several days after that, Chester Russel visited Moore; found him sitting up and feeling pretty good.
The story could have had a better end…
Finally evacuated by air to a Seattle hospital, Moore died in route. Russel doesn’t enlighten us as to what caused the sudden change for the worse. Probably pressure changes as the airplane gained altitude affected the delicate tissues in his brain.