The amazing story of how plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe changed the lives of more than 600 WWII airmen with his innovative technical and psychological methods. These men formed the Guinea Pig Club and they tell their story in this fascinating documentary.
Author Interview
Emily Mayhew was consultant historian on The Guinea Pig Club. Her book on the topic, The Reconstruction of Warriors, was published in September 2004.
BBC Four: What first brought Archibald McIndoe and his 'Guinea Pigs' to your attention?
Emily Mayhew: My grandmother was a nurse in the hospital so this is a story I grew up knowing. I knew it said something very important, not just about the human capacity for endurance and courage, but also about Britain in WWII.
BBC Four: What was special about McIndoe's methods?
EM: Before the war people usually died of serious burns. So for me the most remarkable thing was that he didn't walk away and he didn't say "I need 60 more staff", he just got on with it. Still to this day I can't believe how any one human can have stood the demands made on his time over those six years.
BBC Four: These men suffered terrible injuries, what made the difference in their survival rate?
EM: Almost as the war was breaking out they were making great strides in the treatment of very severe trauma. Secondary shock is the body's response to a very traumatic injury and in the case of a serious burn, if untreated it's the shock that kills you rather than the burn. Between 1937 and 1939 they learnt how to deal with that, but of course in peacetime you get very few of these injuries so nobody really noticed. So when war comes and these people crawl out of burning aircraft, suddenly there was a patient group that nobody had seen before.
BBC Four: While his technical innovations were remarkable, it seems as though his psychological care was just as important, would you agree with this?
EM: Absolutely. The majority of surgeons see the procedure as a purely technical act. For McIndoe that was only the start. If he hadn't taken any care of the psychological side and only dealt with the technical side, he would still be remarkable. But the fact that he devotes this extraordinary level of care to their psychological reconstruction as well is mind blowing. East Grinstead didn't run like a normal hospital
BBC Four: Did he face much opposition?
EM: Absolutely none. The most extraordinary thing about this story is the coincidence of a man who is prepared to become an advocate for his patients and an RAF that is completely on side. The cliché is of one man battling against authority, but within months the RAF had completely bought his philosophy of reconstruction and they backed him to the hilt. The other services don't like it and ask why the RAF is getting special attention for its aircrew, but the RAF gives them two fingers essentially and gets on with it.
BBC Four: Do you have a favourite story from the men you interviewed?
EM: The most interesting story is probably that of the 'Red Guinea Pig', a Soviet fighter pilot called Vladimir Razumov. He was shot down and badly burned, but by some extraordinary piece of luck he ends up in a prisoner of war camp in Germany for Allied aircrew who are burned. He's treated by a surgeon called David Charters who is connected to McIndoe through the International Red Cross. At the end of the war this surgeon dresses Razumov up in a British uniform and smuggles him on board a plane taking casualties to be repatriated and he ends up at East Grinstead. He was very badly injured but enormously considerate; the other patients also took enormous delight in teaching him a range of profanities in English. In July 1946, when his surgery was almost finished, he had two visitors from the Soviet Embassy in London. They went for a walk in the park and he was never seen again. The Guinea Pig Club have attempted to trace him ever since but the chances are that he was taken back and put in a camp because that was what tended to happen. He's probably my favourite.
BBC Four: McIndoe said "To keep them together is the secret of success", was this one of the first patient support groups?
EM: I think it was a prototype. The Guinea Pigs don't like it if you call them that because they think it sounds soft but I think there is no question about that and in fact James Partridge, who is the director of Changing Faces, the charity which supports people with facial disfigurement, specifically says in his book that the Guinea Pig Club had each other and this was a unique situation. Usually what happens in peace time is that you're very much on your own and everybody around you has a normal face. The value of being somewhere where you could always see someone in a worse-off state than you is obvious.
