Murph

Amazingly, Silversides’ was not the first emergency appendectomy aboard a submarine. While in hostile waters on a war patrol, Wheeler B. Lipes performed the first successful emergency appendectomy ever conducted aboard a submerged boat. While minor procedures like sutures had been done, this was the first major undersea surgery. On September 11, 1942, USS Seadragon (SS-194) was on her fourth war patrol in the South China Sea running submerged at a depth of 120 feet. 19-year-old Darrell D. Rector was suffering from acute appendicitis with his appendix dangerously close to bursting. Without a medical officer on board and positioned thousands of miles from any safe harbor, Rector was in trouble. PhM1 Lipes had worked as a hospital lab technician before the war and had assisted a Navy surgeon, observing several appendectomies, but he was not a doctor. Knowing that a ruptured appendix would be fatal, Lipes told CO William E. Ferrall that surgery was the only option. The CO granted permission and Rector consented to the unprecedented procedure. The crew quickly transformed the wardroom into a makeshift operating room, the wardroom table serving as the operating table. Rector was so tall that his feet were placed inside an open cabinet drawer so he could lay flat. Surgical tools weren't available, so retractors were made from five bent stainless steel galley spoons and the surgical scalpel was just a blade gripped tightly by a hemostat. For an anesthesia mask, the crew used a tea strainer lined with gauze. They used boiling water and alcohol from the torpedo fuel tanks for sterilization and the surgical team wore pajamas sterilized with it. Franz P. Hoskins, a crewman who later became a commanding officer, acted as the anesthesiologist despite having no formal medical training. He administered ether through the tea strainer. The cramped space filled with ether fumes, making everyone in the room groggy. When Lipes opened the patient, he found the appendix worse than expected but was able to carefully detach and removed it. After more than two and a half hours, Rector's incision was successfully sutured shut. The operation a success, Rector fully recovered and was back on regular duty in just 13 days. Tragically, he didn't survive the war though. In October of 1944, he was killed aboard USS Tang (SS-306) when she was sunk by her own circular-running torpedo. Instead of a hero's welcome, Navy Surgeon General RADM Ross McIntire was furious that Lipes had performed a major surgery outside his scope of care and threatened him with a court-martial. Ultimately he received no punishment. George Weller of the Chicago Daily News won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the operation. Following the war, Lipes received a commission in the Medical Service Corps and spent decades working in hospital administration. Unfortunately it took the Navy over 60 years to formally recognize his heroism. in February 2005, Wheeler B. Lipes was awarded a Navy Commendation Medal for his life-saving actions aboard Seadragon. He passed away just two months later at the age of 84.