Jungle Doctor - With The Mayo Clinic In The Pacific War

'Jungle Doctor' is a poignant journey through the personal chronicles of Dr. Leo P. Sheedy, a radiologist from Pittsburgh, and his experiences during World War II. As part of the Mayo Clinic's 233rd Station Hospital, Dr. Sheedy's letters vividly depict the hospital's journey from training in Pennsylvania to constructing a medical facility in the jungles of New Guinea. This intimate history captures the day-to-day challenges, successes, and frustrations faced by those delivering critical medical care under primitive conditions.

Leo P. Sheedy, MD was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Completing his residency in Radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, he returned to Pittsburgh where he began his practice and married Virginia Page. In the Summer of 1943, Dr. Sheedy joined the war effort as a member of the Mayo Clinic's 233rd Station Hospital, and with 4 children under the age of 5, was deployed to New Guinea where he helped to deliver world class, Mayo Clinic care to Allied service members despite the most primitive of conditions. Following the war, Dr. Sheedy played a key role in developing a distribution strategy for the Polio vaccine while helping to raise the family that he so dearly missed during his service overseas.