A Vietnamese mother sits next to her young child, who is one of three patients lying in cramped ...

A Vietnamese mother sits next to her young child, who is one of three patients lying in cramped bunk beds in the recovery room of a Vietnamese hospital. There were usually six beds in the recovery ward, but at this time there were up to 15 patients in the ward and they had to be accomodated on Armt stretchers, either on the floor or on top of other beds producing a bunk bed effect as can be seen here. The two men in these beds are both Viet Cong (VC), the one on the top bunk had lost his left arm, probably in a mine explosion. The VC beneath him had multiple gun shot wounds to the abdomen. The little boy sharing the lower bunk had a massive abscess around his right lung and made a remarkable recovery much to the joy of members of an Australian civilian surgical team who worked at this hospital. More than 450 civilian medical and surgical staff volunteered to work in hospitals in Vietnam to instruct and teach Vietnamese medical and paramedical personnel and provide medical aid to anyone who required it.

• Informal group portrait of members of an Australian civilian surgical team with some of the ...
• A red and white bus parked outside a building used as accommodation by members of an Australian ...
• Sick and injured children in the children's ward of a hospital, which was attended to by members ...