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An American Physician Works With a Vietnamese NurseĬourtesy of the American Medical Association Archives. Maher also assisted in repairing orthopedic, chest, and cranial wounds performed amputations, major debridements, and craniotomies and treated patients with cholera, plague, typhoid, and malaria.įigure 5. Maher recalled scrounging for eye instruments from several international naval hospital ships, since supplies he needed were not readily available in local South Vietnamese hospitals. There, he performed 15 elective eye surgeries and trained the Vietnamese director of the hospital in surgical eye care. Robert Maher was first assigned to Vinh Long Hospital to provide ophthalmological care, but the Tet Offensive at the National Palace and the US Embassy in Saigon prompted his reassignment to Da Nang Hospital after only a few days. Robert Maher, Ophthalmologist, Examines a ChildĬourtesy of the American Medical Association Archives. Volunteer physicians also routinely encountered trachoma, leprosy, dysentery, and nutritional disorders.įigure 4. Some common causes of death in South Vietnam during the war were malaria, tuberculosis, meningitis, typhoid fever, intestinal parasitism, and a wide range of war wounds caused by mines, artillery, and booby traps. 1 VPVN participants treated illnesses and conditions rarely seen in American hospitals. American physicians earned respect from the South Vietnamese people not only because they arrived at the request of the South Vietnamese government, but also because they treated both civilian and military patients.

4ĭespite ongoing war, volunteer physicians served in hospitals not subject to regular military action. American Physician Treating a Young Man Wounded in the WarĬourtesy of the American Medical Association Archives.

Volunteers saw up to 100 patients in a day, and VPVN placed high value on educating Vietnamese physicians, surgeons, and nurses to continue caregiving after VPVN volunteers went home.įigure 3. General surgeons, general practitioners, pediatricians, and public health specialists were in highest demand. William Funderburk, a surgeon from Washington, DC, served a tour at the Da Nang Surgical Hospital. William Funderburk Teaches Children to Use a StethoscopeĬourtesy of the American Medical Association Archives. She later returned to Vietnam with the Christian Health Services to continue her work.įigure 2. of Atlanta, Georgia, served a 2-month tour and then requested to stay an additional month to continue operating weekly clinics and providing care to patients in the Da Nang Civil Hospital. In the years that VPVN operated, 774 US physicians served 1,029 60-day tours with nearly 18% choosing to do another tour. Offering medical care to South Vietnamese civilians, volunteer physicians served 2-month tours and received $10 per day in compensation round-trip transportation funding for and aid in securing passports, visas, and World Health Organization-recommended immunizations and a $50 000 all-risk insurance policy.

Examines a ChildĬourtesy of the American Medical Association Archives.

The Vietnam War placed serious health burdens on civilians, and VPVN answered South Vietnamese authorities’ requests for volunteers to serve in areas with the most urgent need.įigure 1. In the Volunteer Physicians for Vietnam (VPVN) Program (1966-1973), funded by the United States Agency for International Development and administered by the American Medical Association, US volunteer physicians on 60-day tours served in 31 of 43 provincial hospitals, 1 with the support of 3 military medical officers, an administrative officer, and 12 enlisted men at each site. Selected images and reports illuminate how such programs can influence both physicians-in-training and the environments in which they are immersed.ĭuring the Vietnam War, South Vietnam faced a dire shortage of physicians serving civilian populations, since Vietnamese physicians were ordered to serve in military hospitals to care for soldiers. This article draws on resources from the American Medical Association Archives on the Volunteer Physicians for Vietnam Program (1966-1973) to consider benefits and costs of immersion opportunities in medical education.