Everyone agreed that Newkirk's eyes looked awful. LeBeau made a compress from a wash rag soaked in warm water and salt, which helped a little. But while no one expected much in a POW camp, they clearly needed more than this to get him better.
"I got a few boxes of supplies from the Red Cross last week," Wilson said. "I haven't gone through them yet, but maybe there's something in there."
Hogan was fuming inside. He hadn't unpacked the supplies yet? Why the heck not? But he held back his irritation. He sent Kinch back to the infirmary to see what Wilson might have on hand.
Except for a couple of morning sick calls, Kinch hadn't set foot in the infirmary since his arrival at Stalag 13 for the simple reason that he didn't have the authority to do so. Now, entering it in the middle of the day, he instantly recognized the problem. With Wilson out and about making house calls, there was only one assistant to look after the 16 men who occupied every last bed. And that guy was running ragged.
Kinch hadn't seen most of the hospitalized patients before. They'd arrived soon after capture with injuries and were sent straight to the infirmary, leaving only a couple of beds for sick men. That meant most sick men had to tough it out in their barracks. And that meant more men picked up whatever contagious illnesses were going around, making the sick calls even more of a daily ordeal.
He made a mental note to get some personnel over here pronto and raise his concerns about inadequate resources with Colonel Hogan. But first they needed to find some medicine for Newkirk.
After fifteen minutes of helping Wilson to unpack and organize supplies, KInch returned in triumph with a tube of yellow oxide of mercury ointment, an antiseptic for eye infections, as well as packets of boric acid powder and aspirin. He handed it all off to LeBeau, who recognized and immediately applied the ointment. Newkirk's squirming diminished almost instantly as the ointment provided some relief. He drifted asleep and Hogan pulled LeBeau and Kinch back to talk and explain.
"The yellow oxide should calm down the irritation," Kinch said. "Later on, we can mix the powder with a little water and that'll do as an eye lotion," he told LeBeau earnestly as the Frenchman nodded agreement. "Then a little more ointment. Wilson said if we do that a few times, it should help."
"Where was all this stuff?" Hogan marveled, holding up the boric acid packets.
Kinch turned to Hogan. "He had several boxes of unpacked supplies from the Red Cross, Sir. He needs some help over there to get things organized, Colonel. And he could use another assistant or two. I know he's not the best trained medic, Sir, but he's what we've got, and he's running on empty."
No wonder he's such a grouch, Hogan thought. "Alright, Kinch," Hogan said. "There must be some guys here with first aid training or something. Anyone who was a Boy Scout would know some basics."
The treatment reduced Newkirk's misery, but he spent the day in a fever's grip. Wilson had men in the infirmary to look after, but he came back to check on Newkirk twice, and gave LeBeau and Kinch instructions on how to cool his fever. He was starting to look worried.
Hogan was by Wilson's side when he returned that afternoon and sat by the bunk, checking Newkirk's pulse and shaking his head in frustration. "What is it, Wilson?" Hogan asked impatiently.
"He's fighting infections, Sir. That's why his fever is so high. I thought it was mostly because of his ear infection, but his throat's pretty bad too, and the eye infection really isn't helping. Aspirin helps a little, but we need something stronger…"
"Like penicillin?" Hogan asked.
Wilson looked up at him disdainfully. "Penicillin? It's 1942, Sir. Penicillin is experimental, and it's rare. A couple months ago, there was enough of it in the U.S. to treat 10 patients. Mass production isn't even going to start for another year, and it will be 1944 before anyone knows how to ship and store it in quantity. And let's not even talk about inconsistent batch quality. Anyway, when there is penicillin, it will be for the invasion forces. Not for corporals with earaches!"
"Oh." When did this guy get so smart?
"Yeah. I may not be much of a medic, but people tell bartenders everything. Maybe sulfa drugs, though…"
"Sulfa drugs? Why didn't I think of that? They have anti-infection properties, and they've been around for years!"
"It's not you, Sir. It's the writers."
Writers? Hogan was even more puzzled now, but he was learning not to put too much weight on anything Wilson said. He was shaping up to be a strange guy, and Hogan knew he was going to have to ignore some quirks.
"Well…" Hogan began. "We haven't ventured out of camp yet, but we do have a tunnel."
"A tunnel?" Wilson said in amazement.
"Well, yeah, We've been industrious."
"Ooookay…"
"Yeah, maybe we could slip out and, uh, get some sulfa drugs from town. There's this veterinarian. He's been helping us get in contact with the Underground…"
"WHAT?"
"Well, yeah. You know Kinch is kind of a genius with radios, so …"
"I did not know that, Sir. It's not the sort of thing that comes up in casual conversation."
"Well, he is. Very genius-y. So he built a radio and contacted London and they put him in touch with Schnitzer. So then I got here, and we talked and we decided, hey! We can help guys escape AND blow up bridges! It's a little crazy, but let's go for it! We'll be in business pretty soon, actually. I just need to find us a demolitions man."
"OK," Wilson said. He was grimacing and trying not to hear most of that. "Well, if you can get your hands on some sulfa drugs, I could use them for the infirmary patients too. We've got some nasty gashes and abscesses and all kinds wounds and gore and pus…"
"That's enough detail, Wilson. I'll see what we can get."
Kinch made arrangements with Schnitzer the vet, and that night Hogan and LeBeau crept out of camp. It was a ridiculously simple mission: Meet Schnitzer on the road just south of camp to collect supplies, and then return. It went off without a hitch. It was sort of mystifying why Schnitzer didn't just bring them into camp himself, actually.
"You think the sulfa drugs they use on dogs are really OK for humans, LeBeau?" Hogan asked as they climbed back into the tunnel.
"Of course, they'll be fine. And anyway, Newkirk is a mongrel, so they'll be ideal for him."
Notes:
Yellow oxide of mercury, boric acid powder, and aspirin were all included in Red Cross medical packages and first aid kits supplied to POW camps.
Wilson's takedown of Hogan's request for penicillin comes almost verbatim from a hilarious PM exchange with my beta. I am grateful for that.
