From C. H. PARKER
I was interested in Virginia Bottomley’s statement on the use of oxygen
treatment of gas gangrene (Thistle Diary, 15 February).
In August 1944 I was among many Normandy wounded at Winterton Hospital,
County Durham, staffed by Swedish Red Cross nurses. Near me was a lad with
a bad case of gangrene. The doctors said, ‘Before we take your leg off,
we will clean it up and try a Swedish system.’
Maggots were applied, and later the leg was covered by a plastic sleeve
with a vent top and bottom. This was filled with oxygen and at intervals
flushed with a saline solution. After two months new flesh was being formed.
C. H. Parker Sherborne, Dorset
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