Gatorade's Combat Uses

By John

W.Thomas Smith's latest dispatch from Iraq:

It's so easy to become dehydrated out here.

An Army captain back in Kuwait described how soldiers and Marines in combat sometimes cut open the top of an IV fluid bag, mix-in some Kool-Aid powder from an MRE, and drink it. "It tastes pretty bad, he said. "But it's almost instant rehydration, and soldiers keep fighting."

....reminded me of this bit from Robert Kaplan's superb Imperial Grunts:

....Sgt. Keith Pace of Ann Arbor, Michigan, had, among other exploits, saved a seven-year-old girl's life with a Gatorade enema. "She had spinal meningitis," Pace explained to me. "She was dehydrating fast. I couldn't find a vein for an intravenous solution. I filled an enema with a bottle of Gatorade, lifted her butt, rammed the Gatorade up her anus. It got into her bloodstream and rehydrated her."

Probably the Navy's favorite way to hydrate.

July 28, 2007 07:21 AM Tech

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Comments

D'OH!!!

Brother Rat BullNav will NOT be pleased...

:-)

LtCol P · July 28, 2007 08:59 AM

...no wonder sailors always smile... imagine that...

DaveO · July 28, 2007 10:22 AM

heh, this is gonna be a great thread

John · July 28, 2007 12:20 PM

I always thought that's why BRITISH sailors smile.

Just for the record, that really is standard medical practice for when a vein can't be found...adult or child.

Veritas et Fidelis Semper

Deborah Aylward · July 28, 2007 12:39 PM

what...with gatorade?

John · July 28, 2007 12:44 PM

I cant wait to see the tv commercial that Gatorade makes out of that.

R · July 28, 2007 03:13 PM

My Navy corpsmen buddies tell me that saline IV drips (without the gatorade) work GREAT to rehydrate after a hard night drinking.

andrewdb · July 28, 2007 06:33 PM

After a hard nite drinking we would just climb into the cockpit and turn on the LOX and breath 100% oxygen.
Course the pilots would do their preflight and make us top off the LOX!

mustang · July 28, 2007 09:51 PM

Have never heard of drinking the IV bag, though I've seen it administered with pretty large guage needles for a faster flow.

Have heard of administering IV via rectum, but only for extreme cases.

Fortunately, I've never been a recipient of one of those.

When the sergeant says, "drink water", dammit, he means it.

Joel · July 29, 2007 04:50 AM

Be carefull of drinking the gatorade.I found out the hard way,I was drinking gallons of the stuff during the summer and when I went to the VA regular visit my sugar was way out of wack!So I told the doc and we did a three week-no gatorade and sugars came back down.Great job Sgt Pace saving the girls life!!(referman)thats refrigeration and A/C just to set things straight. Semper Fi

referman · July 29, 2007 06:46 AM

Rectum?!?

It nearly killed 'em!!!

Jetman · July 29, 2007 08:46 PM