Former submariner will finally be recognized [23 yo WWII pharmacist's mate performed appendectomy]

Sun-Journal [New Bern, NC] ^ | Feb 19, 2005 | Charlie Hall

[Mike Fieschko]

Byron Holland/Sun Journal

Wheeler Lipes, seen in the December 2002 file photo, is a former submariner who performed surgeries in WWII. After many years and publications featuring his historic and controversial work, Lipes will finally receive the Navy Commendation Medal.

Navy Commendation Medal to be awarded to former pharmacists' mate





Wheeler Lipes will finally get his medal.

Sixty-three years ago, Lipes performed a historic and controversial surgery aboard a submarine, saving a young sailor's life.

For Lipes, who has been battling pancreatic cancer in recent years, it will be gratifying to receive the Navy Commendation Medal.

"I certainly didn't expect that kind of recognition," said Lipes, who lives off Madame Moore's Lane with his wife, Audrey.

In 1942, aboard the submarine USS Seadragon 120 feet under the Pacific Ocean near Indochina, Lipes performed an emergency appendectomy on sailor Darrel Dean Rector.

Lipes wasn't a doctor, but rather a pharmacists' mate.

George Weller of the then Chicago Daily News wrote the undersea saga and won a Pulitzer Prize. Several motion pictures also portrayed the incident, including one called "The Pharmacist's Mate," produced by the Navy.

Jan Herman, historian of the Navy Medical Department, was instrumental in seeing that Lipes was finally recognized.

"I found that he had never gotten any kind of recognition from the Navy," said Herman, who interviewed and videotaped Lipes several times for the Navy. "He had been in the newspapers and when the war wasn't going very well for us in the Pacific -- here was this 23-year-old kid who did this great thing -- saved a guy's life under these very harrowing circumstances."

Herman went to his boss -- former Surgeon General of the Navy, Vice Admiral Michael Cowan -- and they went through the various channels to finally get recognition for Lipes.

Performing the operation in adverse conditions -- on a dining table -- was remarkable. The patient was longer than the table, so a nearby cabinet drawer was opened and Lipes put the patient's feet in the drawer. Also, the table was bolted to the floor, so Lipes had to stand with knees bent during the two-hour operation.

He used makeshift instruments -- bent spoons for retractors, alcohol from torpedoes for sterilization and hemostats for knife handles to hold the operation blades. He and the assisting sailor wore sterilized pajamas for operating room gowns.

After nearly two hours, the appendix was not in the accustomed place. But, Lipes felt around and discovered the poisoned appendix behind the caecum.

Lipes removed a massive, five-inch appendix which had several inches of blackened tissue.

"I always thought he was the guy who had the courage," Lipes said of the young sailor. "I've asked myself would I have gotten up on that table and let someone do the same thing to me. He was one of the most courageous people I've ever met."

Sailor Rector was back on duty in 13 days, although his was not a happy ending -- he died two years later when a torpedo from his ship, the USS Tang, circled and struck the ship.

Lipes retired to the area a few years ago after he completed a career in the medical field. He was in the Medical Service Corps; CEO of a 1,000-bed teaching hospital in Memphis, and later he was president of Memorial Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, for more than 25 years.

The 2 p.m. ceremony is Sunday at Camp Lejeune Hospital, with former Surgeon General Cowan scheduled to make the presentation. It is a return home of sorts for Lipes, who was stationed at Lejeune during his military career.

Lipes, who has undergone a Whipple Operation for his pancreatic cancer, will begin new cancer treatments on Tuesday.

He is no stranger to facing his own mortality.

He escaped death early in the war when his ship -- the USS Sealion -- was hit by two Japanese bombs. He carries scars to this day.

He remains optimistic about his newest challenge.

"I've done pretty well against the odds," he said. "It's because I live in heaven, and married an angel."

[Always Right]

Liberals would arrest him for performing without a license.

[Solamente]

Mister Roberts?

[Socratic]

"Liberals..."

Liberals ask: "Is the War in Iraq worth it?" YOU BET! Beyond anything derived in a geopolitical sense, the renewed appreciation of our service personnel justifies it all. The derided Vietnam Generation has turned their ill-treatment into something which transcends what could have been ever lasting bitterness. By giving what they did not receive, they glorify the nation and themselves. By making sure that they recognize other's they bring long due recognition to themselves.

[Solamente]

No, I'm wrong. I think it was the movie "Ensign Pulver!"


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058060/

[MindBender26]

>Sixty-three years ago, Lipes performed a historic and controversial surgery aboard a submarine, saving a young sailor's life.

Typical liberal writer's slant on the news: Be anti-military whenever you can! What was "controversial" about the procedure. The opening paragraph makes that accusation, but the story has nothing to support it.

On sailor saved another's life, but ensure you throw some dirt on the act!

Today's journalists: Little bigoted pencil geeks. (If the writer, Mike Fieschko, can insert opinions, so can I!)b

[Run Silent Run Deep]

I knew that submariners were like demi-Gods but I didn't know we could perform operations too!

[Run Silent Run Deep]

DEMIGOD

A male being, often the offspring of a god and a mortal, who has some but not all of the powers of a god.

An inferior deity; a minor god.

A deified man.

---

Yeah, that's about right.

[Calvin Locke]

Actually, Destination Tokyo, 1943

From the IMDB comment section:

"The appendectomy performed by amateurs under primitive conditions on the bottom of Tokyo Bay.
(Based on a true incident.)"

[Solamente]

I stand corrected. But who had the appendectomy at the Luao?

[MarineBrat]

The movie version of this that I saw was some type of comedy where a junior officer who was always in trouble had to remove the antagonist captain's appendix, while talking to a real doctor via radio. As I recall they had the captain drink mass quantities of liquor as anesthetic.

I think the young officer left a bag of marbles inside the captain. I miss all of those 60's military comedies.

[Solamente]

Um, Luau.

[Solamente]

Yeah, that's the one!

[Calvin Locke]

Burl Ives. I think Cagney was the CO in the original.

You're right, but I forgot to add that "Destination Tokyo" was probably the first to use the incident.

"Pulver" came much later, and did the luau treatment. And the marbles. Can't think of any previous mention
of doing such a thing.

[Solamente]

It's a good thing to repair those fuzzy memory synapses! Thanks!

[Calvin Locke]

You got me thinking of fuzzy memories. I looked up "EP" on IMDB.

Robert Walker Jr., Burl Ives, Larry Hagman, Walter Matthau, Tommy Sands, Peter Marshall, Jack Nicholson,
Richard Gautier, George Lindsey, James Farentino, Jerry Orbach, Michael Daves

I used to like reading the credits until the programming whizzes at the networks decided to squeeze them down.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Interesting WWII Navy Corpman Ping!

[ORECON]

I remember reading this story in "Readers Digest" back in the 1950's.