Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 688 Medical Training
Simmons sat somewhat awkwardly in his chair, staring blankly at the thick stack of "study materials" placed in front of him.

This bright and clean classroom is located in the headquarters of the field medical center of the royal army camp. Every day, you can see many young military doctors in military uniforms coming and going. After carefully inquiring with them, I learned that... these teenagers were allowed to become trainee military doctors after they had completed their cultural courses at the royal public academy and passed the examination.

He truly hadn't expected that the threshold for treating the wounded on the battlefield would be so high, requiring them to hire specialized teachers to first master literacy and writing, just like traditional noble children... You must know that in the past in the Southern Territory, only nobles and knights were qualified to receive treatment from military priests or doctors after being wounded on the battlefield.

Military chaplains have always been low-ranking priests from the church, who also serve as requiem masses for the fallen, primarily listening to their final prayers and offering solace.

Like other medical personnel, they could only do the simplest hemostasis and bandaging. Since most of them had not received professional battlefield medical training, their methods were extremely crude and simplistic, and whether the wounded lived or died depended entirely on their luck.

When he was young, High Priest Donovan briefly served as a chaplain to a lord of a fiefdom in Eisengard. He once witnessed a wounded militiaman on the battlefield with half a broken arrow stuck in his chest being carried to a healer who pulled the arrow out with his bare hands. The unfortunate man, who was still clinging to life, immediately bled profusely and died on the spot.

As for those even less skilled herbalists, most of them were lowly professions like barbers. When an epidemic broke out in the army, they would only choose to treat the soldiers by bleeding them, making them weak before the war even started. The herbs they brewed were mainly folk remedies, which they sold to the army as a scam, and their efficacy was almost negligible.

However, the Kingdom Field Medical Center in Saint Valen is completely different from the medical facility Simmons had imagined.

The first training they were given here was to learn how to properly cleanse themselves!
The priests and priests were first forced to cut their hair short, and several high priests with long beards were forced to shave off their thick beards. Then came the trimming of their nails... The handwashing alone was divided into three steps!

The military medical officer in charge of training them first had them repeatedly wash their palms up to their elbows with boiled and cooled warm water, and rub the soap in their hands to create a lot of lather, making sure to take care of all parts, including the palms and between the fingers.

Then, the hands are immersed in highly concentrated liquor that has been repeatedly distilled, completing a bizarre process called "disinfection".

Finally, raise both hands to wait for the moisture to dry, and your palms must not touch anything other than the injured person's wound throughout the process.

Although Simmons and the others were completely confused, they still tried their best to cooperate, after all, as "prisoners," they had no right to complain... They followed the instructions step by step.

"After today's class, please take this battlefield medical manual home and read it carefully when you have time... It details the standard procedures that must be followed in battlefield medicine, as well as emergency treatment methods for most types of injuries."

As soon as the supervisor finished speaking, some impatient priests and pastors immediately began to look down and flip through the pages.

A rustling sound suddenly filled the classroom.

These church personnel recruited from the Holy City were all from the lower classes. Most of them did not hold high-ranking positions in the Papacy and rarely interacted with nobles. Most of them had sympathy and concern for ordinary people because of their backgrounds, which was one of the important criteria for their selection.

In His Majesty Harvey's words, only by possessing the most basic "empathy" and goodwill can one uphold "medical ethics" in the cruel and bloody battlefield, provide responsible treatment to every ordinary soldier brought before him, never abandon or give up on anyone, and treat them without discrimination based on their status or rank.

……

After a day of training, Simmons and the others immediately returned to their temporary residence, staying obediently in the fairly comfortable dormitory and refraining from going out unnecessarily. High Priest Donovan, carrying a cup of hot water, walked to Simmons, who was leaning against the simple wooden bed, pointed to the manual he was diligently reading, and said gently, "How much can you understand? Perhaps I'm getting old... I can't understand much of it, it's quite difficult."

Simmons closed the book, pondered for a moment, and then cautiously said, "To be honest... much of the knowledge in this book is even more profound and obscure than the Holy See's scriptures. I've only just figured out what 'disinfection' is, and I still have no idea what 'infection' is."

The young pastor lying on the upper bunk leaned out and smiled, "I've figured out the injury assessment and grading system! The principle is actually very simple... When an injured person is brought to us for treatment, we should first assess their injuries. The treatment methods differ depending on the severity of the injury. We should prioritize stopping the bleeding first, and then proceed with the treatment step by step according to the severity of the injury."

Donovan smiled and nodded. These basic rules were not difficult to understand. They had done the same thing in the armies of noble lords in the past. However, the Saint Valen people seemed to implement these rules in a more formulaic way and did not take into account the background of the wounded at all... Between lightly wounded officers and seriously wounded ordinary soldiers, the latter must be given priority in receiving treatment.

He deeply appreciated this concept that all beings are equal under the divine authority.

However, what followed was beyond his comprehension...

After assessing and classifying the injuries, the priority is to control massive bleeding while ensuring the injured person remains conscious and breathing smoothly. In cases of suffocation and unconsciousness, they are even allowed to cut open the throat with a knife in an emergency to help the person resume breathing.

This is nothing short of a butcher's cruelty... Looking at the anatomical diagrams of the human throat printed in the book, most priests and clerics felt a chill run down their spines. Wouldn't this just kill the person directly?

The high priest knew he couldn't bring himself to do something so cruel. He would rather exhaust all his energy to cast a healing spell than cut the neck of a wounded person who was already on the verge of death.

Simmons, however, keenly noticed the details mentioned in the book and muttered to himself, "How did they manage to cleverly avoid the vital bleeding areas of the neck when they made their incisions?"

He immediately recalled that this was a magical kingdom controlled by a large number of spellcasters in high positions, and there must be no shortage of heretical wizards who were extremely fanatical about human modification... To be able to successfully develop this proven and effective first aid method, they probably had conducted countless blasphemous experiments involving human dissection.

As for whether any living subjects were persecuted, he didn't dare to think about it any further.

The further you read in this first aid manual, the more advanced the knowledge it covers, and the more detailed the treatment plans for the injuries become.

Whether it's a penetrating wound or a trauma involving massive blood loss such as a limb rupture, there are clear solutions.

Even if a person is already dead when they arrive, they are still required to use a method of repeatedly pressing on the chest to try to save them... There are even many real cases recorded here, showing that even after the injured person's pulse has stopped, they were successfully snatched back from the hands of death without relying on any extraordinary means involving magic or divine arts.

This seems really unbelievable!

As for more common open wounds, burns, fractures, etc., there are standard treatment methods that he can clearly understand and master after repeated practice.

It seems that what I need to focus on studying is... what sounds rather mysterious: "infection prevention"!
(End of this chapter)