Oral History Interview with Mary Medcalf, December 27, 2000 Page: 3

                                
wonderful commander there. I just loved the place.

Mr. Cox: What was your specialty?
Mrs. Medcalf: Well, actually, when the soldiers came back from overseas, so many of them needed
orthopedics because they had wounds to the arms and legs. Most of them developed all kinds of
infections. Sometimes we would get an entire troop coming in. They would notify us and we would
stay on duty until all of the patients were cleared. The doctors would be there to remove the cast. Since
there was so much infection, it was just horrible for a few days after they arrived.
A lot of them had severe bed sores for not having as adequate care as they should have while
they were overseas. A lot of them had spinal injuries. We learned we needed all kinds of beds. We
needed the circelectric bed and the Bradford frames that you have seen in the hospital where they are
able to turn and move people regardless of how ill they are. You can turn them by moving the
equipment around.
As war was winding down, the hospital no longer accepted patients. They transferred us nurses
to where we wanted to go from there. I chose to go to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. That was a real nice
base there and I liked it there.
Mr. Cox: These wounded that you would treat, were these fellows that had lost limbs.
Mrs. Medcalf: Yes. It was interesting. Some of them were addicted. I know we had one patient one
night that cried every night. I would tell him that he would not get the narcotic anymore.

Mr. Cox: He was used to the morphine to ease his pain.
Mrs. Medcalf: That is what they were using, the morphine. It was highly addictive over a long period

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