New York-Tidewater chapters' history of military medicine award - The military odyssey of Norman Bethune

While visiting the Peoples Republic of China in 1982, I became aware of the work of the Canadian, Norman Bethune, as a military surgeon. Bethune first served as a stretcher-bearer in an ambulance unit and later as a medical o fficer with the Allies during the First World War. He also participated in the Spanish Civil War as a military physician. He died in China while servi ng with Mao Tse-tung's 8th Route Army, fighting the Japanese invaders in Ye nan. Bethune pioneered the use of whole blood transfusions in combat areas, first in Spain and then in China. In the annals of Chinese military histor y, he has been given an honored place as a military surgeon and a martyr. H e is also credited in China with improving the practice of battlefield medi cine, as an organizer, teacher, and innovator. Bethune's fame in China is n ow spreading to Canada.