Ka Argie: Guerrilla medic, dentist and surgeon
The New People's Army now counts hundreds of medics, dentists and surgeons among its ranks as a result of its efforts to systematize trainings in medical work. These medical workers� talent and skills would amaze even university-educated medical professionals and veteran doctors. The accumulated experience of Red medics is a rich trove of medical and scientific knowledge that directly serves the revolutionary forces and the people.
Ka Argie is one such medic.
At 35, Ka Argie already has a wealth of experience as a fighter, medic and surgeon. Hailing from the peasantry, he began as a youth activist in 1982 in their barrio in Cagayan Valley.
Not long afterward, he decided to join the NPA. Although he had no knowledge whatsoever of medical work, he was chosen to become the medic of his unit. Amid political and military trainings, Ka Argie underwent thorough training in medical work under one of his comrades in the unit.
Since then, Ka Argie has served as Medical Officer of the various NPA units he has been assigned to. It was during the years of premature regularization and intense armed fighting between the NPA and AFP that Ka Argie honed his skills as a surgeon, especially in treating gunshot wounds.
When the rectification movement was launched and the NPA resumed devoting the appropriate amount of time and attention to organizing the masses, Ka Argie was able to develop other aspects of his medical work. In the mass work unit he belongs to, part of his daily task involves giving check-ups to barriofolk and prompt medical attention to persons found to be suffering from ailments. Providing such medical services to the masses is one of the NPA's urgent tasks as a genuine people's army.
In over two decades as a Red fighter and doctor, Ka Argie's knowledge and skills in the medical field have grown even broader.
He has also learned to clean, extract teeth and make dentures.
He now knows how to conduct urine and blood analysis and undertake refraction to make lenses for glasses.
Aside from his rich experience in operating on gunshot wounds, Ka Argie has also operated on hernias and cysts. He has also performed amputations.
Ka Argie has likewise repaired a patient's broken bone by using a stainless steel brace. Aside from applying plaster casts on fractured bones, he also also done bone and skin grafting and has performed eye operations (installing an artificial eye, in particular).
The continuous development of Ka Argie's knowledge and training proves the degree of attention and importance the NPA attaches to medical work.
"Medical work is part of the NPA's mass work," says Ka Argie. It is geared not only towards addressing the NPA's combat needs but to establishing and consolidating the mass base, he adds.
"Even if the NPA has not yet achieved a high degree of specialization in the medical field," said Ka Argie, "the people's net gain is enormous and extensive." With the help of the NPA's medical work, its expanded and consolidated mass base serves as the foundation for the development of medical training both within the people's army and among the people.
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