As a doctor on Vikrant life was never dull.It is an aircraft carrier was acquired in 1961 and was standing in sea 24 x 7 thus corrosion is rampant.So the sailors have a constant job of painting the ship.One day before annual inspection one of our sailors was cleaning a small engine room compartment with thinner before repainting.suddenly lights went off.Our sailor being a sincere one decided to finish the job before lunch.He thus took a candle and matchstick.As soon as he lighted the matchstick the thinner which had evaporated inside the small closed compartment exploded resulting in 30% burns for the sailor.He was brought to me immediately.I simply covered his open wounds with sterile gauze, put an IV cannula to secure his vein and gave him a pethidine injection and transferred him to our Hospital INHS Asvini at Colaba.You should never try and remove clothes in burns case as the burnt clothes are sterilised by the flame.Always put up an IV line as the swelling of body makes passing a needle more and more difficult as time passes.
Similar case happened a few days later when one sailor had his one hand almost severed.he was standing at the quarterdeck(the back end of ship) and was observing the crane lowering the whaler(a small boat)The metal wire which was going down over the pully just snapped and came back like a whiplash.This sailor was just outside the line of the metal wire thus it just grazed his left arm and forehand and literally peeled the skin from mid arm to mid forearm.Had the wire hit him on his head he would have died and had it hit on his shoulder it would have dislocated his shoulder.I quickly put the skin back and bandaged it and dispatched him to INHS Asvini. Both the sailors recovered in due course of time and were transferred to INS Angre (the base unit) to allow them to recover fully before being deployed on active duty.
People do not realize how life can be dangerous in forces even at peace time
Similar case happened a few days later when one sailor had his one hand almost severed.he was standing at the quarterdeck(the back end of ship) and was observing the crane lowering the whaler(a small boat)The metal wire which was going down over the pully just snapped and came back like a whiplash.This sailor was just outside the line of the metal wire thus it just grazed his left arm and forehand and literally peeled the skin from mid arm to mid forearm.Had the wire hit him on his head he would have died and had it hit on his shoulder it would have dislocated his shoulder.I quickly put the skin back and bandaged it and dispatched him to INHS Asvini. Both the sailors recovered in due course of time and were transferred to INS Angre (the base unit) to allow them to recover fully before being deployed on active duty.
People do not realize how life can be dangerous in forces even at peace time
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