Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Capt Jolly, doc who saved 1,000 lives on both sides in the Falklands War
HERO TELLS OF BATTLEFIELD HOSPITAL HORRORS
SURGEON Captain Rick Jolly was the only person decorated by both sides in the Falklands war and saved every UK serviceman he treated.
The Royal Navy medic, known as Doc Jolly, worked at a field hospital at Ajax Bay, treating 1,000 troops.
Capt Jolly, who was awarded an OBE by the Queen, and the Orden de Mayo (Order of May) by Argentina, died this week aged 71. These exclusive extracts from his book reveal, in his own words, the remarkable events he witnessed.
June 8 1982: A terrible event had occurred – the LSL Sir Galahad had been bombed by a gaggle of A-4 Skyhawks while anchored near Fitzroy; her sister ship, the LSL Sir Tristram had been attacked too. There were apparently large numbers of casualties.
The scene around us degenerated into a complete nightmare. As darkness crept in, load after load of helicopter casualties began to arrive at Ajax Bay.
Each new patient seemed worse than the last.
Stretcher-borne casualties kept appearing in the main door. No one knew for certain how many more were coming, only that we had received about 120 victims.
I got on the radio to Division HQ. I asked them, urgently, to prepare a list of ships that could take about a hundred of the lightly burned or injured.
GUILTY
The medical teams got to work on the more severely afflicted as a runner came up from the beach with a new message. HMS Fearless, HMS Intrepid and MV Atlantic Causeway were standing by, each ship willing, and getting ready to receive around three dozen injured each when we could get them over.
About half of the waiting Welsh Guardsmen had flash burns to face and hands only. I decided these men would constitute the “lightly injured” category, but at the same time felt very guilty. We had to tell them why we could not take them in, and where we proposed sending them.
I expected some ranting and raving, perhaps even accusations of betrayal or flint-heartedness, and prepared myself to apologise. However, the young Welsh Guardsmen were stoical and cheery as we broke the news.
Standing near the doorway, blowing on their tattered and painful hands to keep them cool, many of them were totally pathetic sights. Strips of skin hung from their fingers like thin, wet muslin, and their faces were blistered and raw, the hair singed short. But by God, they were brave. Each man seemed to know of someone else in the building more seriously injured than himself, and all of them would rather have had him treated first.
It was simply heartbreaking to turn nearly 90 young men away, but there was no other way. I watched them as they marched away, still blowing on their hands as they went, still maintaining good order and discipline, and with not a single word or gesture of dissent.
The amputation of a lower leg was, surprisingly, the most serious item in our workload – apart from Guardsman
Simon Weston. This young man had a terrifying appearance, with his face and scalp reddened, blistered and swollen and some of his hair charred.
The whole thing must have been a horror show for him. Ironically, some of the least burned areas of his upper body
It was simply heartbreaking to turn nearly 90 young men away, but there was no other way Prior to going into a pain-free state, Simon had been begging me to put an end to his misery
were the most painful, because the flash burning caused by the bomb detonations had lifted the superficial layers of the skin and exposed the nerve endings.
His pain was severe, and although we did our best with intravenous morphine, the poor chap was still suffering terribly. It was Malcolm Jowitt who solved the problem for him, using intramuscular ketamine, a steroid-based anaesthetic.
Prior to relaxing into a pain-free and trance-like state, Simon had actually been begging me to put an end to his overwhelming pain and misery.
Afterwards, he became a media star thanks to his autobiography and a couple of television films and he put this to good use by creating The Weston Spirit, to help youngsters who have crippling accidents or deforming injury.
Simon is a shining example of how extraordinary such “ordinary” people can be. Hooray for him. Extracted from Doctor for Friend and Foe, by Dr Rick Jolly OBE, published by Conway at £9.99.