www.lesswrong.com/posts/4CkqSpkwA9pLjkmz7/have-americans-become-less-violent-sin...
1 correction found
Helicopter medevac in Vietnam cut the time from wounding to surgery from 4–6 hours (the Korean War average) to about 35 minutes
The 35-minute figure is for wounding-to-treatment, not wounding-to-surgery. Official Army histories put Korea-era time to surgery much higher—about 9.8 hours on average, with roughly 4.6 hours just to reach a forward hospital.
Full reasoning
The article mixes together different endpoints.
A commonly cited Vietnam figure is that helicopter evacuation reduced the time from wounding to treatment to about 35 minutes. But that is not the same as time from wounding to surgery.
Official Army medical histories for Korea distinguish these stages. One Army history gives about 4.6 hours from wounding to forward hospital admission. Another gives about 9.8 hours from injury to operation for vascular injuries, noting that about 6 hours of that was spent reaching the hospital and about 4 hours in preparation for surgery.
So the statement is incorrect as written: it substitutes surgery for treatment/hospital admission, which materially changes the comparison. The 35-minute figure does not support a claim of 35 minutes from wounding to surgery.
3 sources
- VVMF Education Guide - Medical 2
The Bell UH-1 helicopter reduced the amount of time from wounding to treatment to an average of 35 minutes, a monumental decrease as compared to the 4-6 hours from wounding to treatment for the evacuated in Korea.
- AMEDD Center of History & Heritage - Battle Casualties in Korea, Chapter 10
The time lag from injury to operation for all cases of vascular injury in 1953 averaged 9.8 hours ... Approximately 6 hours of this time was spent reaching the hospital, and 4 hours in preparation for surgery.
- AMEDD Center of History & Heritage - Battle Casualties in Korea, Chapter 2
The time required for this evacuation sequence from time of wounding to forward hospital admission averaged 4.6 hours (range, 1 to 11 hours).