Share on Facebook
Tweet
Add My Story
Early on October 25, 1983, the United States led an invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada. It was the first major military action taken by the United States since the Vietnam War. The mission was known as Operation Urgent Fury, and was undertaken by the US for a few reasons: the murder of the Grenada’s leader Maurice Bishop, general instability in a country in close geographic proximity to the United States and the presence of US citizens at Grenada’s medical school at St. George’s University. In this video, one of these medical students speaks about the first day of the invasion, including going to the hospital to attend to the wounded. Of conditions at the hospital, he says: “I saw approximately about 30 wounded. Of these 30 wounded, about two or three have died. The others have gone through surgery and are presently stable. My work pretty much consisted of trying to maintain an order, some kind of order along with the other physicians there. That is, provide some services such as continuing IV fluids, blood, antibiotics, and organization for what was a totally unequipped hospital to deal with this emergency. The hospital, we didn’t have an Xray services, we have hardly any oxygen, only had 5 pints of blood during this whole period and hardly any antibiotics except for a few.” The invasion, considered to be a violation of International Law by the United Nations, resulted in a US victory after just a couple of weeks.
      | Comment |
