thedrifter
06-14-05, 11:58 AM
Advances make war more survivable
Situated about 60 miles north of Baghdad, Camp Anaconda's hospital has turned into a 60,000-square-foot modern facility where those caught up in the violent spiral are treated.
BY MARK WASHBURN
Knight Ridder News Service
CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq - First, the grievously wounded arrive for the flight on stretchers, some carried by volunteers who show up for special duty in the middle of the night after working on the base all day.
After the last stretcher is loaded aboard the military evacuation plane, the ambulatory patients prepare to ascend the ramp, one after the other.
Volunteers and staff from Camp Anaconda's tent hospital flank their path.
They clap vigorously and cheer loudly as the first patient appears, and they do this until the last one makes the climb, the circle closing, the salute echoing through the cavernous C-141 cargo plane.
This is the last sound the wounded American warriors hear in Iraq.
Speed, technology and advancements in armor have made the battlefield in Iraq one of the most survivable in the history of warfare:
• A new blood-clotting powder for major bleeds has proved so effective that it's being issued for medical kits.
• U.S. forces in the field are heavily populated with combat lifesavers, soldiers with training comparable to emergency paramedics back home.
• A fleet of aircraft -- including helicopters and cargo planes -- is on call to rush casualties to medical care.
• Physicians with advanced skills, such as neurosurgery and cardiology, practice in field hospitals.
• In extreme cases, patients are flown to the storied military medical center in Landstuhl, Germany, within hours of their injuries, in airborne intensive-care units.
Situated in this desert garrison of 23,000, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, Anaconda's hospital is 60,000 square feet of modern medical care dressed in tan canvas.
It has intensive care units, three operating rooms, two CT scanners, recovery wards and a chapel.
Specialties include neurosurgery, urology, psychiatry. A dozen operations a day is routine. A baby has even been delivered here.
Anaconda is also the main center for transfer to Germany. The staff here treats U.S. troops and contractors, Iraqi military and Iraqi citizens caught up in the nation's violent spiral.
''We will use every tool in the box for these guys,'' said Air Force Col. Russ Turner of Florence, Ala.
The commander of the Anaconda hospital said its level of skill was comparable to such medical centers as Johns Hopkins or Massachusetts General.
Former patients won't argue, especially the soldier who arrived with a piece of shrapnel lodged behind his heart, one of the hardest places to operate.
FATAL INJURIES
''This would be a fatal case in most hospitals in the United States. This would be a fatal injury almost anywhere else,'' Turner said. ``But they got the shrapnel out. And the soldier went home.''
Body armor, with its woven super-fibers and ceramic plates, is Turner's ally in the field.
''Before, it used to be shrapnel that killed people,'' he said. ``Now it's all orthopedic extremity injury. The vests: a very good investment.''
Speed of evacuation also distinguishes military medicine in Iraq.
''These young men and women will get injured in Fallujah one day and be in Germany two days later,'' Turner said. ``We can take people critically injured and get them to care. It's just amazing.''
''What we've changed is what we're comfortable flying with,'' said Air Force Lt. Col. Kirk Milhoan, explaining how advances in technology allow critically ill patients to be airlifted to specialty care. Ventilators and other critical equipment are now compact enough to fly.
``This allows them to get to a clean hospital outside a tent, usually in 36 to 48 hours.''
Milhoan, a flight surgeon and specialist in pediatric cardiology from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, has served on Critical Care Air Transport units. They're composed of specialists who manage patients on the five-hour flight from Anaconda to Landstuhl.
CCAT patients are sedated to the verge of paralysis to manage the buffeting of the flight and to relax their respiratory systems so they will not fight the ventilators.
Intensive care is a vigorous, nursing-intensive specialty in ordinary circumstances, but aboard a cargo plane it becomes an endurance test.
Flight nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors must work in helmets and bulky protective vests when flying over Iraq, in a cold, noisy fuselage bathed only in red light so that no illumination escapes the windows.
NURSES STANDING BY
It's too noisy to hear alarms, so nurses stand by patients constantly monitoring vital signs. In this stage of care, Milhoan said, the nurses are the front line. Physicians largely stand by, ready if needed.
After the flight from Iraq, patients are loaded onto buses and driven to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, a 150-bed hospital that's already seen 24,000 patients from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some high-priority burn patients have reached Landstuhl within eight hours of injury on the battlefield.
They've been treated, readied for another flight and reached the military burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio 30 hours after their injuries.
Ellie
Situated about 60 miles north of Baghdad, Camp Anaconda's hospital has turned into a 60,000-square-foot modern facility where those caught up in the violent spiral are treated.
BY MARK WASHBURN
Knight Ridder News Service
CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq - First, the grievously wounded arrive for the flight on stretchers, some carried by volunteers who show up for special duty in the middle of the night after working on the base all day.
After the last stretcher is loaded aboard the military evacuation plane, the ambulatory patients prepare to ascend the ramp, one after the other.
Volunteers and staff from Camp Anaconda's tent hospital flank their path.
They clap vigorously and cheer loudly as the first patient appears, and they do this until the last one makes the climb, the circle closing, the salute echoing through the cavernous C-141 cargo plane.
This is the last sound the wounded American warriors hear in Iraq.
Speed, technology and advancements in armor have made the battlefield in Iraq one of the most survivable in the history of warfare:
• A new blood-clotting powder for major bleeds has proved so effective that it's being issued for medical kits.
• U.S. forces in the field are heavily populated with combat lifesavers, soldiers with training comparable to emergency paramedics back home.
• A fleet of aircraft -- including helicopters and cargo planes -- is on call to rush casualties to medical care.
• Physicians with advanced skills, such as neurosurgery and cardiology, practice in field hospitals.
• In extreme cases, patients are flown to the storied military medical center in Landstuhl, Germany, within hours of their injuries, in airborne intensive-care units.
Situated in this desert garrison of 23,000, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, Anaconda's hospital is 60,000 square feet of modern medical care dressed in tan canvas.
It has intensive care units, three operating rooms, two CT scanners, recovery wards and a chapel.
Specialties include neurosurgery, urology, psychiatry. A dozen operations a day is routine. A baby has even been delivered here.
Anaconda is also the main center for transfer to Germany. The staff here treats U.S. troops and contractors, Iraqi military and Iraqi citizens caught up in the nation's violent spiral.
''We will use every tool in the box for these guys,'' said Air Force Col. Russ Turner of Florence, Ala.
The commander of the Anaconda hospital said its level of skill was comparable to such medical centers as Johns Hopkins or Massachusetts General.
Former patients won't argue, especially the soldier who arrived with a piece of shrapnel lodged behind his heart, one of the hardest places to operate.
FATAL INJURIES
''This would be a fatal case in most hospitals in the United States. This would be a fatal injury almost anywhere else,'' Turner said. ``But they got the shrapnel out. And the soldier went home.''
Body armor, with its woven super-fibers and ceramic plates, is Turner's ally in the field.
''Before, it used to be shrapnel that killed people,'' he said. ``Now it's all orthopedic extremity injury. The vests: a very good investment.''
Speed of evacuation also distinguishes military medicine in Iraq.
''These young men and women will get injured in Fallujah one day and be in Germany two days later,'' Turner said. ``We can take people critically injured and get them to care. It's just amazing.''
''What we've changed is what we're comfortable flying with,'' said Air Force Lt. Col. Kirk Milhoan, explaining how advances in technology allow critically ill patients to be airlifted to specialty care. Ventilators and other critical equipment are now compact enough to fly.
``This allows them to get to a clean hospital outside a tent, usually in 36 to 48 hours.''
Milhoan, a flight surgeon and specialist in pediatric cardiology from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, has served on Critical Care Air Transport units. They're composed of specialists who manage patients on the five-hour flight from Anaconda to Landstuhl.
CCAT patients are sedated to the verge of paralysis to manage the buffeting of the flight and to relax their respiratory systems so they will not fight the ventilators.
Intensive care is a vigorous, nursing-intensive specialty in ordinary circumstances, but aboard a cargo plane it becomes an endurance test.
Flight nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors must work in helmets and bulky protective vests when flying over Iraq, in a cold, noisy fuselage bathed only in red light so that no illumination escapes the windows.
NURSES STANDING BY
It's too noisy to hear alarms, so nurses stand by patients constantly monitoring vital signs. In this stage of care, Milhoan said, the nurses are the front line. Physicians largely stand by, ready if needed.
After the flight from Iraq, patients are loaded onto buses and driven to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, a 150-bed hospital that's already seen 24,000 patients from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some high-priority burn patients have reached Landstuhl within eight hours of injury on the battlefield.
They've been treated, readied for another flight and reached the military burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio 30 hours after their injuries.
Ellie