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From the beginning of air warfare, an airman's greatest fear was fire. Burns are among the most painful of injuries and they also produce terrible disfigurement. This is the story of how Britain led the way in treating these injuries in WWII. It is about innovation in medicine and the treatment of patients, and about the people who did it and their patients.
The central theme is the remarkable figure of Sir Archibald McIndoe, his burns unit at East Grinstead and his patients, who formed the Guinea Pig Club. Through original research, Emily Mayhew adjusts the familiar tale. While the image of the Guinea Pigs is dominated in the public mind by fighter pilots, most famously Richard Hillary, we learn here about the far more numerous bomber crews. She also tells the story of David Charters who did work similar to McIndoe in the primitive conditions of a POW camp in Germany. We learn about how the town of East Grinstead itself played a key role in repairing not just the faces but the minds of the disfigured airmen, and how the RAF supported them and McIndoe, even when he bent the rules. The unit was one of the first to practice wholistic medicine, to treat its subjects not as patients but as people. It is a human tale.
Mayhew manages to combine scholarship with a compelling narrative and brings together the big picture and the personal stories of many of the individuals involved as doctors and nurses and their patients.
Always authoritative, the book is also an easy and gratifying read. It is a marvellous story. This is a highly informative and touching piece of work which deserves wide readership. Highly recommended.
The author sets the scene well, explaining that the new high-octane aviation fuel meant that RAF aircrew in wartime would be facing what was virtually a new type of wound - terrible disfiguring burns that could 'erase' faces. And of how McIndoe had to develop new techniques - and discard old ones - to try to give back to his 'Guinea Pigs' some hope of a normal life. He also realised that surgery was only part of the treatment - the men's morale was vital too, so his approach was 'holistic', and included attractive nurses - who were chosen for their competence and ability to cope emotionally - and a barrel of beer in the ward to ensure the patients took enough liquids!
But above all, he enlisted the entire population of East Grinstead (and as the book makes clear, later the entire country too) as a support network, to help the recovering patients' re-entry to life and society. The men were not hidden away as dangers to morale, but rather celebrated as heroes and their contribution valued.
Both the 'Guinea Pigs' and McIndoe are well-served by this book, and you won't regret buying it.
I knew a little about The Guinea Pigs but not much, so i asked if he could recommend a book on the subject, this is the one he produced.
It is informative and a good read, blending the surgical story with the airmens and gives the reader an insight to Archibald McIndoe.
I would recommend it particularly if you only read one book on the subject, my friend says it is the most complete history on the Guinea Pigs he has read so praise indeed for Dr. Mayhew.
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