It is incumbent upon us to
promote the desirability of alternative solutions to conflict
At the recent
Armistice Day centenary commemorations, I had the privilege of attending a
splendid rendition of the concert An Australian War Requiem in
Sydney’s Town Hall.
The requiem to the
nation’s fallen soldiers in World War I is in three tableaux; the first
concerns the horror of war, the second focuses on sons and mothers, and the
third — and most dramatic — is a reflection on loss.
The event led me to
reflect on the far-reaching role doctors have played throughout history in
times of war, and continue to play when it comes to human horrors.
Our role is
multifaceted and spans the breadth of war.
Our first
contribution, of course, is to do our best to heal those who are physically and
mentally injured by war, and to understand, as best we can, the awful
circumstances they have endured.
One such doctor was
New Zealand ENT surgeon Sir Harold Gillies. Working on the Great War’s Western
Front, he witnessed attempts to repair the ravages of facial injuries and, as a
result, became a pioneer in plastic surgery.1
A plaque honours Sir Harold Gillies. Photo: Simon Harriyott/Wikimedia
Commons. https://bit.ly/2TBAgLu
He opened a
hospital in the UK after the Battle of the Somme in 1916, where he treated
thousands of cases of jaw and facial mutilation.
In World War II, Australian
surgeon Sir Ernest Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop was renowned for his leadership while
being held prisoner by the Japanese.
He was hailed by
other POWs in the prison camps and jungle hospitals on the Burma-Thailand
railway for being “a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and
suffering”.2
Kanchanaburi war cemetery, where thousands of Allied POWs who died on
the notorious Thailand to Burma death railway are buried.
Our second
contribution comes in the aftermath of war when we look at the reasons for
negative behaviour in affected servicemen and women and try to assist them if
they emerge shell-shocked or, in modern parlance, with PTSD.
Research suggests
that even medieval soldiers suffered from the psychological impact of war
despite their training from a young age and being surrounded by death.
In 15th-century
France, people believed that warfare caused a kind of madness and soldiers who
went “berserk” were celebrated. However, non-combatants who were traumatised by
war were pitied or ridiculed.3
Today PTSD remains
a major therapeutic challenge, and not only for war veterans. A Google search
of the phrase ‘Australian doctors treating PTSD’ yields a vast number of
entries concerning psychiatric treatment, medication, lifestyle and other
treatments.
Finally, we are
bound to share our medical insight into the real cost of war with our
communities.
Doctors in the US
recently engaged in the modern-day version of this duty of care when, just a
few days before the Armistice Day centenary, they took to Twitter to reveal the
day-to-day horror of the country’s gun crime.4
Fuelled by the US
gun lobby’s call for doctors to “stay in their lane” on the country’s gun
control debate, dozens of emergency care medics posted photos of themselves
working while covered in patients’ blood as a visual reminder of the human cost
of America’s shooting epidemic.
Away from the
front-line, numerous doctors have also been honoured for championing a
reduction in the engines of war.
SA palliative care
physician Professor Ian Maddocks was president of the Medical Association for
Prevention of War when it received an Australian Peace Medal, and
vice-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear
War when it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.5
And, more recently,
Professor Tilman Ruff, an infectious disease and public health doctor from the
University of Melbourne, was chair of the International Campaign to Abolish
Nuclear Weapons — the recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.6
It is important for
doctors, who see the damage, to make clear to our communities and their
political representatives the absolute desirability of finding alternative
solutions to conflict.
But the reality is
that in a world of scarce resources, war will likely remain part of the human
condition, and will not, unfortunately, be going away. We must therefore remain
ready to meet its challenges.
Requiescat in pace.
Professor Leeder is an emeritus
professor of public health and community medicine at the Menzies Centre for
Health Policy and School of Public Health, University of Sydney.
Published in Medical Observer 26 November 2018
https://www.medicalobserver.com.au/views/doctors-notching-wins-war-cant-be-won
