Abt IX 
1. 
DEMONSTRATION OF A PERSONNEL CIEANSING STATION 
Lieutenant Commander Arthur F. Abt, MC, U. S. N. R. 
The Personnel Cleansing Station was set up according 
to the enclosed latest OCD diagram; and was for the treat- 
ment of stretcher chemical warfare casualties* The ambula- 
tory patients care for themselves by going to the upper 
floor of some building and taking a bath# 
For the purpose of demonstration, it was assumed 
that the patient who was brought in by the two attendants 
was suffering from a fractured arm as well as being a 
chemical warfare casualty. The two attendants were wearing 
gas masks, heavy rubber gloves, protective clothing, and 
rubber overshoes to protect them from the vesicant attack 
which was supposed to have been spread over the area. 
These stretcher bearers had a small first aid box with 
them, because of the utmost importance of treating a 
vesicant contaminated patient as soon as possible. It 
must be remembered that immediate prophylaxis is effec- 
tive only up to five minutes after liquid contamination. 
It was assumed that the stretcher bearers had adminis- 
tered as much immediate first aid as possible in the 
field, and had adjusted a gas mask on the patient. Lis- 
ted below are suggested items for inclusion in a chemi- 
cal warfare First Aid Kit, and a summary of the use of 
its contents: 
1. Copper Sulfate, 10$ solution 
2. Sodium Bicarbonate, 2% solution 
3. Soap, bar 
A. Kerosene 
5. Clean Cotton Waste or Rags 
6. Cotton, absorbent, compressed 
7. Gauze, plain, compressed 
8. Dichloramine-T in triacetin 
9* Hydrogen Peroxide, 8$ 
10* Ointment, protective (M«4) 
Use of Contents 
1. For Use for white phosphorus burns. 
2. For Use in irrigating vesicant eye lesions 
before blepharospasm. 
? 
For Use in First Aid Treatment of Vesicants. 
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2. 
For Use in First Aid Treatment of Mustard Gas 
Contamination of the Skin, 
2« For Use in First Aid Treatment of Lewisite and 
other arsenical gas contamination of the skin* 
10, For Use as Prophylaxis against Vesicant Attack* 
The stretcher bearers entered the Decontamination Room 
of the Personnel Cleansing Station after going through a 
shuffle box for the decontamination of their own boots. 
This shuffle box contained one part of bleach mixed with 
two parts of sand. 
The equipment of the Decontamination Room consisted of 
the followings 
1. Shuffle box - (l) 
2. GI cans - (2) 
3. Kerosene - (2 pails) 
4* Saw horses - (2) 
5, Low Table - (1) 
6, Newspaper 
7, Sponges - (2) 
8* Low bench - (1) 
9, Scissors - (1) 
10. Gas Mask Bins 
11, Exhaust Fan 
12, Stretcher 
13. Gas First Aid Kit 
The personnel for this room consisted of the followings 
1, Hospital Corpsmen (Stretcher Bearers) - (2) 
2* Attendants * (3) 
The personnel were equipped with the followings 
1. Gas Masks (Civilian) - (6) - (1 mask on patient) 
2, Protective clothing - (5 suits) 
trousers 
woolen gloves 
jumper 
3* Rubber gloves • (5 pairs) 
A* Rubber overshoes - (5 pairs) 
In this room the patient was undressed, his clothes be- 
ing carefully disposed of in a large gas-proof container. 
It can not be too strongly emphasized that the personnel 
giving first aid in removing the clothing should 
be completely protected, or they too will become casualties. 
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3. 
The next step was to determine exactly whether or not a 
vesicant had been used. This was done by employing gas de- 
tector paper which was inserted near a spot of the chemical 
warfare agent. The color of the paper turned red or orange, 
thus proving that the reports of vesicant attack were true. 
The contaminated stretcher on which the patient was 
brought in on was then removed, and the patient was placed on 
a clean stretcher. This completed the functions of the un- 
dressing or decontamination room. The patient was then trans- 
ferred through an air lock, which was long enough to accommo- 
date a stretcher, into the Cleansing Room. 
The equipment for the Cleansing Room consisted ofs 
1# Shower 
2, Saw Horses - (2) 
3* Stretcher - (l) 
4, Air Lock - Blankets - (2) 
Garden Hose 
6, Sponge - (1) 
7, Soap 
8, Shuffle Box, 
The personnel for the room included; 
2 Nurses* Aids 
2 Shower and Bathing Attendants 
2 Stretcher Bearers, 
The personnel equipment consisted of: 
Nurses* Uniforms - (2) 
Rubber Aprons - (2) 
White Gowns - (2) 
Rubber Boots - (2 pairs). 
The two stretcher bearers advanced and received the patient 
in the air lock. There was another shuffle box at the entrance 
of the air lock into which the attendants stepped. They were 
careful to lift only one blanket of the air lock at a time. 
They then carried the patient into the cleansing room and placed 
the stretcher on the saw horses. The patient’s mask was then 
removed, and the cleansing operation proceeded. 
The cleansing operation consisted of; 
1. Dry pads of cotton waste, or rags, were gently applied 
to absorb and remove any excess agent on the skin. 
These areas were patted; not rubbed or smeared. 
6- 4-00 5t» P 3 Abt IX. 
4. 
2, The contaminated areas of the skin were gently patted 
with pads of cotton waste, clean rags or sponges which 
had been dampened with a solvent such as; kerosene, 
alcohol, or gasoline (not ethyl gasoline). Vesicants 
are oily substances and are soluble in the solutions 
mentioned. Extreme care was taken in disposing of the 
soiled pads, as vesicants are not destroyed in the sol- 
vents and are still capable of blistering. 
3. For the purpose of demonstration, it was assumed that 
a mixture of mustard and lewisite gases had been used. 
A weak solution of hydrogen peroxide was applied to 
the contaminated areas to treat the Lewisite burns. 
4, Dichloramine-T in triacetin was also applied to the 
skin for treatment of mustard contamination. However, 
the triacetin solution should not be used after ery- 
thema, or blistering, has occurred. Dichloramine-T 
may in itself be irritating to the skin, so its appli- 
cation was quickly followed by the soap and water pro- 
cedure . 
5# The vigorous use of soap and water was the next pro- 
cedure, The patient was bathed by the two attendants, 
and then carefully dried. 
6, All contaminated hair was then cut off, as mustard 
clings persistently to hair and may cause further burns* 
The eyes of the patient required some special treatment, 
and the tw* nurses administered this first aid. However, it 
must be remembered that no first aid treatment should be 
used in the eyes after symptoms, such as blepharospasm and 
photophobia begin. It is also very important to remember that 
NO hydrogefc peroxide, potassium pcrmangamate, oil or dichlora- 
mine-T should be used in the cyoj The nurses irrigated the 
patient!s eyes with a 2% solution of sodium bicarbonate. 
This completed the cleansing operation and the patient 
was no longer a problem of gas warfare. He was then trans- 
ferred to the third room - the Dressing Room - where his 
fractured arm was cared for. The operation of this room was 
not demonstrated, however, because the special chemical war- 
fare technique was no longer necessary in caring for the 
casualty. 
6— 4-00 o» P 4 Abt IX. 
5. 
DISCUSSION. 
DR. ABT: Now, Dr. Bennett, would you like to discuss the 
demonstration? 
DR. BENNETT: I think it worked very well as a demonstration. 
I can't pick any flaws in it. There is one 
thought that occurred to me, and that is that 
in this second room it would be possible to di- 
vide that with curtains and have a few wires 
stretched across, so that in handling male and 
female patients at the same time, it would be 
possible to give attention to men and women, and 
still not build a double cleansing station so 
that you would handle the men separately from the 
women as you have them in the cleansing station 
for ambulatory people. 
The only other thing in the acting out of this 
play that some of you might have wondered about 
in the light of what I told you downstairs was 
that there were the stretcher bearers leaving 
by this other entrance here without getting cleaned 
up. That is because it is impossible to get them 
to the other station here on the stage easily un- 
less they came through here. 
I think you would agree with this, wouldn't you. 
Dr. Abt, that once they have taken up their sta- 
tions out here, they would never go back through 
the station until they have taken off their cloth- 
ing and then had decontaminated, or cleansed them- 
selves? 
DR. ABT: Yes, we ran them around downstairs. We only have 
two corpsmen. If we were to follow the act out 
properly, we would need two more. I wish, though, 
we had two more. 
QUESTION: With regard to the technique there, when you left 
the mask on for the nurses to take off, are they 
not liable to become markedly contaminated? 
Wouldn’t it be better to take the mask off first? 
DR. ABT: Well, it is simply a matter of judgment, I think. 
It is individual judgment and common sense all 
the way through. If the leader in the undressing 
room had felt the mask was contaminated, he would 
have gotten it off, no doubt, before he even went 
through the air lock* On the other hand, if there 
had been a stream of patients going through, there 
might have been a chance that there would have been 
accumulated vapors in the cleansing room. Of course, 
6-4-00 *6 p 5 Abt IX. 
6. 
Major Cary will say these exhaust fans would have 
taken care of that, but, anyway, there is that 
chance, and perhaps it would be wise to leave the 
mask on as long as possible. That is about the 
only way I can figure it out. 
I don’t think you can make too definite rules. 
Certainly if the mask were contaminated on the 
way in, it should have been removed in this first 
room, but the compound fractures and the shock, 
the whole idea, it seems to me - - This is a civi- 
lian hospital and, as a medical man I was always 
taught the interest of the patient comes first, 
so you would worry about the patient’s shock, and 
so forth. 
On the other hand, the hospital is a communal 
project which is needed, and you couldn't just 
rush your patients in and contaminate your hospi- 
tal, That wouldn’t be so bad. You could clean 
up the building the way they did in the movie last 
night. On the other hand, your very valuable per- 
sonnel - - and I am here forced to rap on the table - 
have 'to be protected, and you don't want to make 
casualties of them, so it is touch and go, I should 
say. 
QUESTION: What if the patient were in shock, where would 
you start your plasma? 
DR. ABT; You wouldn’t start it, I don’t think, until you 
got him in the second room. 
QUESTION; How about the practical difficulties of a splint? 
If he were contaminated when he came in with the 
splint, you probably would have to take it off. 
DR. ABT: Well, we made it about as difficult for ourselves 
as we could. I was going to put a splint on, 
and Dr. Coulter said no, no more properties, so 
I don!t know, I would like to ask a surgeon. 
What about it, Dr. Allman? What would you do with 
a patient with his bone fractured? Would you 
help me out? 
DR. ALLMAN: Well, it seems to me you would have to sacrifice 
the patient for the good of the other patients, 
I mean there is a priority there, isn't there? 
DR. ABT; Well, one way or the other. 
6-4-0058 P 6 Abt DC. 
7, 
DR. ALLMAN: You might endanger the patient, but otherwise you 
would endanger too many more, that is all. 
DR. ABT: The question of the splint comes up. What would 
you do about this splint? What about it. Dr, 
Bennett, if the man had a splint on? 
DR, BENNETT: I should think that it would probably bo prefer- 
able to put the splint on before he was brought 
in, I don't know just where in the cleansing 
process you are going to make a compromise, I 
think that, while it is not shown in this patient 
here, a medical officer outside might offer some 
advice in the handling of the casualties as they 
come in. Ho might pick out those who were in 
shock and badly injured, and might give them right 
of way, to that patient. Beyond that I don't 
know how it would be handled. 
DR. ALLMAN: Another possibility would be for this man in 
shock just to be kept right in the corner of 
this undressing room and give the plasma while 
the other patients would bo taken care of. 
DR, ABTs Ensign North has an idea. 
ENSIGN NORTH: In England it is customary in the receiving room 
as much as possible to have some trained medical 
personnel, at least corpsmcn, and the corpsmen do 
such things as administer sedatives and drugs as 
necessary and anything of that description. They 
determine which ones they have to handle first and 
make any decisions of that type. They probably 
would pass on the proposition* As far as taking 
clothes off and cleaning, they do make every ef- 
fort to keep them warm, but in the field, of 
course, we are assuming that we would have a smooth 
flow that carried the patient right through, so it 
would be only a matter of a very few minutes. Actu- 
ally it would be much less time than we are taking 
because we were going slow here to keep with the 
description. Actually they run them through as 
rapidly as possible. If they had a man in shock, 
whether they would give him plasma or not, I don't 
know, but they do give drugs and things like that. 
DR, ABT; One other thing I would like to mention - - this 
is entirely my own idea - - this is a small first 
aid kit that could go along with the stretcher 
bearer, or the ambulance, or whoever is picking 
these people up, 1 don't know if you noticed 
6-4-00 58 P 7 Abt IX, 
8, 
it on tho stretchers as the corpsmen brought the 
patient in the first time. This is where your 
initial first aid may save quite a space of time. 
The eye splashes, or evident skin splashes, could 
bo much more readily attended to right as the pa- 
tient was picked up on tho stretcher. 
QUESTION: Wouldnft it bo a better procedure to have the 
stretcher bearers in the undressing room take 
the patient into the air lock rather than to 
have the stretcher bearers come into the contam- 
inated area? 
DR, ABT: Well, you mean the stretcher bearers who are here? 
QUESTION: Take the patient to the air lock and then the 
others don’t have to come in the undressing room. 
DR, ABT: Well, it could bo done. 
ENSIGN NORTH: In that connection, sir, it is assumed that the 
outside stretcher bearers are likely to have be- 
come contaminated sufficiently so they might in 
lifting him got against the blanket and contamin- 
ate it and then the next patient might have tho 
blanket touch him and thus become contaminated 
just after being swabbed off to some extent. 
The permanent personnel here arc less likely to 
become contaminated in the chamber than the stret- 
cher bearers in the field who have to pick up the 
patient wherever ho may lie and take debris off of 
him and everything else. 
DR, ABT: I think the whole is the matter of the lesser 
evil, as far as I can see it. 
QUESTION: How do you decontaminate your stretcher? What do 
you do with it? 
DR, ABT: Well, we take it out and we have this slurry solu- 
tion which is 50 percent chloride and 50 percent 
water, and we give it a good going over with brooms, 
brushes, and so forth, and you can leave the slurry 
on for 24. hours. We used to have paper on this as 
it comes in and then we might have that taken off, 
and take them back to the ambulance and onto the 
field, but your stretcher bearers were to take the 
paper but if they would have another stretcher when 
they came in with the victim they would waste as 
little time as possiblef 
6-4-005& Abt 3X* 
9. 
QUESTION: How many stretchers would you use up in this place 
in 24 hours, if it takes 24 hours to decontaminate 
it? 
DR, ABT: Well, you can make stretchers with a blanket and a 
pair of brooms, I don’t worry much about that* 
QUESTION: I would think they could be steamed quite fast. 
DR, ABT: We could get rid of it by steam. If you just had a 
pair of poles and a blanket, I think you could get 
plenty of blankets, and so on, to make as many stret- 
chers as you wanted. Does anyone want us to do the 
scene over again, or to do the scene another way and 
see how it works? 
QUESTION: I would like to ask you, since perhaps it is done 
more rapidly if you use improvised stretchers with 
blankets, how would you decontaminate the blankets? 
DR, ABT; That is a good question* You put them in one of 
these other G,I, cans and build a fire under it and 
put your blankets in and hang your clothing from the 
top. That is the way they are taught by the army f 
chemical warfare service; all those who d®contamit.)te 
in the field take a G,I, can and hang the clothes, 
and you put water in the false bottom and let it 
simmer for three or four hours and that will hydro- 
lize it, and there you are. 
QUESTION: When you move the patient through the air lock, 
couldn’t you have some kind of a blanket, or cover 
or something, and couldn’t you have a G.I, can in 
the cleansing room to deposit that cover in? 
DR, ABT: Why would you cover him up? You have just gone to 
all the trouble of getting his clothes off. Why 
should you cover him up again? 
QUESTION: You are contributing to any danger of shock if 
you leave him exposed. Couldn’t you cover him with 
a clean sheet, or a blanket, so possibly if he has 
to wait five minutes to get in the air lock - - 
DR. ABT: If he had to wait that long, decidedly so, but, on 
the other hand, if things were running smoothly 
enough so the clothing came off and he immediately 
went through the air lock, I think it would be a 
waste of blankets. 
6-4-00 58 P 0 Abt IX* 
10. 
QUESTION: The room temperature is how warm? 
DH# ABT: Well, Major Cary has got us in a nice warm air- 
conditioned building here. We don’t have to 
worry about anything. There are exhaust fans 
and he has a thermostat control. Well, if there 
are no other questions, thank you very much for 
your attention. 
tv- 4-00 p 10 final