Casualties of War

This ballad probes the glory and grief immanent in the duality of war, battle casualties all too often taken for granted, even forgotten, leaving loved ones behind to pick up the pieces. The song speaks to every generation for the underlying emotions are the same no matter what the war.

Rapid air ascent from the plains to a high altitude during the Himalayan war in 1962 predisposed our canvas-shoed, summer-clad troops to high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), a potentially life-threatening disorder little known outside the Peruvian Andes, where it was first reported in 1937. Within 1-3 days of arrival at the high altitude, the stress of severe physical exertion and exposure to cold was compounded by progressive cough and laboured breathing (dyspnea); bluish discoloration on the face and extremities due to inadequate oxygenation of blood (cyanosis); small clicking, bubbling or rattling chest sounds (rales) on one or both sides; increased pulse and respiratory rates. From feeling choked, and wheezes (shrill whistling sounds) heard all around, a patient rapidly became moribund. Accumulated fluid between the two layers of membrane (pleura) covering the lungs--pleural effusions--on one or both sides could be haemorrhagic before death.

At the field hospital located at 11,200 feet (3,413.7) in Leh, on the banks of the river Indus and capital of the Indian state of Ladakh, a doctor in the Army Medical Corps (AMC) had his work cut out for him. Diagnosing and treating unacclimatized cases of HAPE among the troops, he was able to help save many lives.

 It is with a sense of immense pride and gratitude that I recall the work of my father--among the pioneering and finest AMC doctors—and dedicate this song to him, to our gallant troops who gave their tomorrows for our today, the war veterans among us, those continuing to defend our borders against all odds at altitudes between 13,700 feet and 17,880 feet, and the families that have sacrificed so much.

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