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western front
The Evacuation Chain
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Evacuation
chain
The process of evacuating and
treating
wounded soldiers during
World War I
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Evacuation
chain
Priorities
were: 1) Save
lives
, 2) Return soldiers to duty as soon as possible, 3) Heal them as well as possible and discharge them from the Army
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Evacuation
chain
1.
Fighting
at the front
2.
Stretcher bearers
rescue wounded
3.
Regimental Aid Post
(
RAP
) provides initial treatment
4.
Dressing station
and
field ambulance
stabilize patients
5.
Casualty Clearing Station
(
CCS
) provides more complex treatment
6.
Base hospital
provides
advanced care
and long-term accommodation
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Soldiers were strictly
forbidden
to stop and help the wounded during attacks, and were told to wait for the
stretcher bearers
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Stretcher
bearers
They would rarely be deliberately targeted by either side, but faced
dangers
from
long-range bullets
, machine guns, and artillery
They often had to
cross rough
and muddy terrain and travel through
crowded trenches
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Many wounded men bled to
death
on the way to the
dressing station
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Thomas
splint
A crucial invention that helped
stabilize
patients with
broken
legs
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Regimental Aid Post (RAP)
Usually within 200 meters of the front line, could only deal with minor wounds, tried to return as many men as possible back to the front line
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Dressing
station and field ambulance
Intended to
stabilize
the condition of patients so they could be transferred to
better
medical facilities
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Casualty Clearing Station (CCS)
Located at a sufficient distance from the front line to provide some safety, tried to help the most critically wounded
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Powerful evidence of the failure of some
Casualty Clearing Stations
to save every man, due to the
severity
of many of the wounds
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Triage
system at hospitals
Divided wounded into 3 groups:
walking
wounded, those in need of hospital treatment, and those with
no
chance of recovery
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At the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, 24 Casualty Clearing Stations were staffed by 379 doctors and 502 nurses, treated over 200,000 casualties, with 30% requiring surgery and 3.7% dying
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Base
hospitals
Located many
miles
from the front lines, close to the French and Belgian coast, developed new and
improved treatments
for wound types
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Soldier
's treatment completion
1. Passed
fit
for
duty
and returned to unit
2. Sent to
British
hospitals for further treatment, potentially discharged from
Army
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The evacuation chain was surprisingly effective at saving lives and returning
soldiers
to
duty
, or helping them recover if this was not possible
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