New York-tidewater chapters' history of military medicine award: The military odyssey of Norman Bethune

Military Medicine, Apr 1999 by Alexander, C Alex

Epilogue

In Canada in recent years, there has been a belated recognition of Bethune's contributions to military medicine. The University of Toronto has placed a plaque in the foyer of its medical school honoring Bethune.7 In 1979, Canada and China jointly celebrated the 40th anniversary of Bethune's death with an exchange of visits by national delegations.11 Although Bethune pioneered the use of whole blood in combat areas, first in Spain and then in China in the 1930s, this achievement often goes unrecognized. Hall's recent attempt to claim that transfusion of whole blood in a forward area of combat may have taken place for the first time in the U.S.-French forces' battle at Chipyong-ni in Korea is an example of such an oversight.12 Bethune's Canadian medical contemporaries offer only mixed reviews of his life. Bethune's closest professional associate, Dr. Edward Archibald, in a letter to Gabriel Nadeau said, he was definitely abnormal, but not 'mental' and not a genius nor a leader. He was clever, especially in mechanical things, and could have easily been one of these inventors of whose inventions nine fail, and one succeeds enormously.... He was entirely amoral. And yet it is not quite fair to say all that, because I do give him credit for sincerity in his social views."9 Although in 8 years of practice as a thoracic surgeon in Canada he wrote 16 scientific articles and invented several thoracic surgical instruments, his political views resulted in the termination of his appointments from McGill University. His stormy relationship with his wife and subsequent divorce, his association with leftists, his support of compulsory health insurance, and his praise of Communist Russia forced his departure from his position at the Hopital du Sacre-Coeur to the battlefields of Spain. The missionary physician who worked with Bethune in China for a short time said, Norman Bethune boasted he was a Communist, I say he was a Saint of God."13 At a McGill University conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of Bethune's death, the university's vice-chancellor, Dr. H. Rocke Robertson, summarized Bethune's accomplishments thus: "Bethune's claim to fame should not be based upon his abilities as a thoracic surgeon. It is very possible that the very qualities that caused some of Bethune's colleagues to criticize his work in chest surgery, his speed of hand and decision, may have rendered him a superb military surgeon."' His recognition in Canada is on the rise because of Bethune's fame among the Chinese. In the military annals of the Peoples Republic of China, Bethune is hailed as a great military surgeon, a martyr, and a national hero.

References

1. Gordon S, Allan T: The Scalpel, the Sword. New York, Monthly Review Press, 1973.

2. Shephard DAE, Levesque A: Norman Bethune, His Tmes and His Legacy. Ottawa, Canada, The Canadian Public Health Association, 1982. 3. Walt AJ: The world's best-known surgeon. Surgery 1994; 4: 582-90. 4. Macphail A: Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914-19, p 68. Ottawa, Canada, The Medical Services, Ministry of Defense Publication, 1925. 5. Beaton-Mamak M: The lonely legend of Norman Bethune. Dimensions in Health Service 1974; 4: 14-6.