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The 1st prize is two rare Limited Edition DC?s, many members will never have had or couldn?t afford to have tried these previously so to allow the maximum number of members the opportunity of winning this wonderful prize, I will be holding a raffle, tickets ?5 each.
You can buy as many tickets as you wish to increase your chances. I will be giving a couple of tickets to a member who sent me some money, as he couldn?t afford the previous auctions but wanted to make a donation anyway. I will pm the member to let him know he?s in with a chance.
Because it is going to be necessary to pm me for details of how to pay, this raffle will be open to all members with Pm?ing rights (50 posts or is it lower these days?)
Just for your amusement here?s an article that was published in the Nursing Times, without my permission & against MOD rules i.e. Servicemen cannot normally write or speak to the press without permission. The info was taken from letters to my mother. The only common ground besides genetics that we shared, was a medical background so I wrote about my patients. Luckily I didn?t mention patients names or Sindy. I tried to stop publication having been warned just before hand but was told by the editor, ?it?s in the public interest.? I didn?t get any real grief onboard but plenty from the Nursing Sisters at Haslar later, I mean I wasn?t even a
, just a lowly medic, in their hallowed magazine. Simon Dove: Never seen so much blood before.
One sailor and his patients: 'It's like a motorway pile up everyday'
A GRAPHIC account of life aboard the hospital ship Uganda during the height of the battle for the Falklands is given in a letter home by Simon Dove, one of the medical assistants who helped nurse both British and Argentine wounded.
Simon, who is 22 and whose parents live at Yateley, Hampshire, joined the Uganda at Gibraltar with the rest of the party of nurses who flew out from the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, near Gosport.
In my last dispatch before leaving Montevideo, where I saw 270 wounded men leave the ambulance ships to be flown back to Britain, I quoted the head of the British Hospital who paid tribute to the superb care the men had received before leaving Uganda.
Simon paints a vivid on-the spot picture of a battle day in the life of a medical assistant on Uganda.
From Seaview Ward, which is under the stern and beneath the flight deck, Simon opens his account:
?Since my arrival the work loadhas shot up and we get 40 to 50 casualties a day. It's like having a motorway pile up every day of the week.
To date we have saved everybody who made it to the ship, as have the field hospital ? 100 per cent recorded. Sounds good, doesn't it. It represents some bloody miracles.
So far we have had five amputees, one total loss of sight, several with one eye lost, five colostomies on 18-20- year-olds ? hopefully not permanent ? as well as loads who are deaf because if exposed to more than seven pounds of pressure, your ear drums will perforate, ie all those in an explosion. Hopefully most of these will be operable at home.
Today we had our first Gurkha casualty. He was shot four times from behind in the right buttock and right leg.
Simon sets the record straight, however, pointing out that the shooting was a mistake by a British soldier who was cleaning his sub-machine gun on a table and left in the magazine. He describes the treatment that followed:
?We gave him 20mg of pethidine and he had a reaction and felt even worse.
Then when I checked his bandages there was fresh blood running out, not just oozing. I thought the femoral had gone so I had some marines who were about to take him down for an X-ray running round looking for crepe bandages. They came back with one and luckily it was enough.
Wide they had been running around, I had been pressing over what appeared to be the wound site. I have never seen so much blood come out of a well-padded bandage before, hut so far no reoccurrence.?
On the lighter side, Simon describes how he and his colleagues decided to grow moustaches for charity, since they were no longer allowed to wear beards.
He also recalls nursing the "enemy", the Argentine crew of the merchant fish factory ship Narwal which was shot up by Harrier aircraft while running supplies.
?They were all great blokes and I had a wonderful week looking after them, learning a little Spanish and hearing about the good side of Argentina. At least it enables one to have a balanced point of view.?
Anearlier newsgram sent to Simon's parents when Uganda was 8,500 miles out from Gibraltar describes the hospital ship as "very much a going concern" and on station with the ambulance ships Hecla, Hydra and Herald, dealing with 88 patients.
"Our naval nurses have adapted to shipboard life. It is the first time that QARNNS ratings have been to sea, although QARNNS sisters were embarked in hospital ships world war," he writes.
Fresh water was rationed at one time and, according to the ship's supply officer, the amount of food consumed included 19,500 eggs, three tons of meat, seven tons of potatoes, 33,000 bread rolls and 2,160 pints of milk.
After anchoring at Grantham Sound, between the two main islands, and receiving casualties from both sides arriving by helicopter, Simon describes the view as "much like the Scottish highlands, with snow on the hills and even Aberdeen Angus grazing on the cliffs".
board, the medical staff were kept busy. "Our patients are being well-cared for and under expert treatment, "he adds.
Simon is expected home early next month for a family reunion and his mother, a nurse auxiliary, is planning a party.
"Simon has wanted to be a nurse ever since he was a five year-old. When hewas 12 he spent a month in hospital and that clinched it. As soon as he left school he went to Haslar for nurse training. But never in his wildest dreams did he ever think he'd find himself nursing in the front line," she said.
One ticket please. And I'll be posting the ticket money along with a well overdue parcel so will need an addy to post to asap please 
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