CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
195
BODY WEIGHTS
Our doctors kept under observation staff and patients who were able to move about, to get warning of any deterioration in their condition. We weighed all staff and all up-patients once weekly, and I have voluminous records of the weight readings.
In every case the pattern was the same. Each man knew his peacetime weight and this always dropped when he went into camp as a prisoner. The amount of the fall was remarkably regular, in the region of 12.25% of the original weight. So long as a man remained relatively healthy his camp weight remained fairly steady, if anything falling a little. When disease supervened, a further fall occurred varying between 10% and 30% of his peacetime weight. Graphic records of the admission and discharge weights of successive intakes of patients between October 1942 and July 1944 were maintained. All of these graphs showed that patients recovered some of lost weight while they were in hospital and this varied from as little as 1% of the peacetime weight to over 10%. In one series of patients their weight on discharge from hospital was still 13.25% below the camp weight, and these figures show how very hard it was for a patient to regain weight lost as a result of an illness of any severity. The weights of staff followed a similar pattern.
The patients from whom these figures were taken were of course up-patients and did not include any of the living skeletons of whom we had so many, particularly in the early years.
Those who found it possible to take the rice and vegetable diet lost slightly more than 12% of their peacetime weight. Thereafter their weights remained fairly steady or showed a slow decline. It was not until 1945 that some began to regain a little of the weight they had lost, but even so the increase amounted to only a pound or two.
THE JAPANESE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF AND GUARDS
I had never been in Japan nor had I met any of its people other than barbers for example. Incidentally, at one of the earliest visits by Japanese officers after our surrender, among those in uniform at the head of the procession was one of the well-known Japanese barbers from the Hongkong Club. When I use Japanese proper
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
195
BODY WEIGHTS
Our doctors kept under observation staff and patients who were able to move about, to get warning of any deterioration in their condition. We weighed all staff and all up-patients once weekly, and I have voluminous records of the weight readings.
In every case the pattern was the same. Each man knew his peacetime weight and this always dropped when he went into camp as a prisoner. The amount of the fall was remarkably regular, in the region of 12.25% of the original weight. So long as a man remained relatively healthy his camp weight remained fairly steady, if anything falling a little. When discase supervened, a further fall occurred varying between 10% and 30% of his peacetime weight. Graphic records of the admission and discharge weights of succes- sive intakes of patients between October 1942 and July 1944 were maintained. All of these graphs showed that patients recovered some of lost weight while they were in hospital and this varied from as little as 1% of the peacetime weight to over 10%. In one series of patients their weight on discharge from hospital was still 13.25% below the camp weight, and these figures show how very hard it was for a patient to regain weight lost as a result of an illness of any severity. The weights of staff followed a similar pattern.
The patients from whom these figures were taken were of course up-patients and did not include any of the living skeletons of whom we had so many, particularly in the early years.
Those who found it possible to take the rice and vegetable diet lost slightly more than 12% of their peacetime weight. Thereafter their weights remained fairly steady or showed a slow decline. It was not until 1945 that some began to regain a little of the weight they had lost, but even so the increase amounted to only a pound or two.
THE JAPANESE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF AND GUARDS
I had never been in Japan nor had 1 met any of its people other than barbers for example. Incidentally, at one of the earliest visits by Japanese officers after our surrender, among those in uniform at the head of the procession was one of the wellknown Japanese barbers from the Hongkong Club. When I use Japanese proper
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