thedrifter
03-17-08, 06:06 AM
'I will remember it forever'
Navy medical personnel work to heal the wounds of war
JENNIFER HLAD
March 17, 2008 - 1:53AM
DAILY NEWS STAFF
When Cmdr. Steven Kewish first arrived in Al Asad, Iraq, he went to the hospital where he would be working for the next seven months. There, he saw a patient who had been severely injured in an improvised explosive device blast.
The man had basically lost his legs in the explosion, Kewish said. But he still managed, somehow, to run out of the Humvee.
"The bravery of that young man ... the heroic stories you hear about people, saving themselves and saving their buddies, are incredible," Kewish said. "It really made me appreciate what the Marines do."
As Marines patrol the streets of Iraq, fighting insurgents and training Iraqi forces, Navy medical personnel are also toiling in the desert - working to heal the wounds of war.
Kewish served with Bravo Surgical Company in Al Asad from February to September 2005, as part of what was then called 2nd Force Service Support Group. About 90 percent of the patients in the emergency room were service members, he said, mainly Americans.
"The war was different then, a lot more active," he said.
Cmdr. Pamela Harvey saw a different mix of patients.
Harvey, now the group surgeon for 2nd Marine Logistics Group, served in Al Taqaddum from August 2006 to March 2007. In that emergency room, she saw service members, Iraqi civilians and even detainees.
"We treat everybody," she said. "It's a unique situation medical personnel are put in. You try to make sure everyone is treated properly and fairly."
Treating detainees can be an emotional challenge, she said, but doctors must treat patients according to their injuries - not their identities.
"Emotionally, does it tug at you? Yes. But you have to put it at the back of your mind," she said.
Though Harvey is an emergency room doctor and had worked in the ER at Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital before deploying to Iraq, she said nothing can completely prepare someone for what they will see in combat.
"The nature of the injuries is the hardest to prepare for ... the severity of the injuries in a given patient," she said, "There is no trauma facility in the United States that sees that kind of trauma."
Like Kewish, Harvey said she saw amazing things in the hospital.
The patients - especially the service members - were "a daily sense of inspiration," she said. "The selfless nature, the courage they display, is humbling."
There is a lot to learn from serving in combat, Kewish said, and those lessons can be applied when medical personnel return to hospitals and bases in the United States.
Many advances in civilian medicine developed from knowledge learned on the battlefield, Harvey said.
The progress is evidenced by the survival rate of those wounded in combat, which Harvey called "unprecedented in military medicine."
But that survival rate is due in large part to how quickly the Marines are now able to transport patients from the battlefield to the hospital bed, she said.
"It is not because the doctors are any smarter," she said. "It is because we learned how to better do business."
Kewish now serves as the department head of the Family Medicine Clinic and the program director of the family medicine residency program at the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital. Part of his job is to select doctors for deployment.
Serving in Iraq, he said, made him a more confident physician.
"This is something that I'm very proud of that I've done," he said. "I will remember it forever."
Harvey called her deployment "life changing."
"It was by far the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I've ever done," she said.
Contact interactive content editor Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 8467.
Ellie
Navy medical personnel work to heal the wounds of war
JENNIFER HLAD
March 17, 2008 - 1:53AM
DAILY NEWS STAFF
When Cmdr. Steven Kewish first arrived in Al Asad, Iraq, he went to the hospital where he would be working for the next seven months. There, he saw a patient who had been severely injured in an improvised explosive device blast.
The man had basically lost his legs in the explosion, Kewish said. But he still managed, somehow, to run out of the Humvee.
"The bravery of that young man ... the heroic stories you hear about people, saving themselves and saving their buddies, are incredible," Kewish said. "It really made me appreciate what the Marines do."
As Marines patrol the streets of Iraq, fighting insurgents and training Iraqi forces, Navy medical personnel are also toiling in the desert - working to heal the wounds of war.
Kewish served with Bravo Surgical Company in Al Asad from February to September 2005, as part of what was then called 2nd Force Service Support Group. About 90 percent of the patients in the emergency room were service members, he said, mainly Americans.
"The war was different then, a lot more active," he said.
Cmdr. Pamela Harvey saw a different mix of patients.
Harvey, now the group surgeon for 2nd Marine Logistics Group, served in Al Taqaddum from August 2006 to March 2007. In that emergency room, she saw service members, Iraqi civilians and even detainees.
"We treat everybody," she said. "It's a unique situation medical personnel are put in. You try to make sure everyone is treated properly and fairly."
Treating detainees can be an emotional challenge, she said, but doctors must treat patients according to their injuries - not their identities.
"Emotionally, does it tug at you? Yes. But you have to put it at the back of your mind," she said.
Though Harvey is an emergency room doctor and had worked in the ER at Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital before deploying to Iraq, she said nothing can completely prepare someone for what they will see in combat.
"The nature of the injuries is the hardest to prepare for ... the severity of the injuries in a given patient," she said, "There is no trauma facility in the United States that sees that kind of trauma."
Like Kewish, Harvey said she saw amazing things in the hospital.
The patients - especially the service members - were "a daily sense of inspiration," she said. "The selfless nature, the courage they display, is humbling."
There is a lot to learn from serving in combat, Kewish said, and those lessons can be applied when medical personnel return to hospitals and bases in the United States.
Many advances in civilian medicine developed from knowledge learned on the battlefield, Harvey said.
The progress is evidenced by the survival rate of those wounded in combat, which Harvey called "unprecedented in military medicine."
But that survival rate is due in large part to how quickly the Marines are now able to transport patients from the battlefield to the hospital bed, she said.
"It is not because the doctors are any smarter," she said. "It is because we learned how to better do business."
Kewish now serves as the department head of the Family Medicine Clinic and the program director of the family medicine residency program at the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital. Part of his job is to select doctors for deployment.
Serving in Iraq, he said, made him a more confident physician.
"This is something that I'm very proud of that I've done," he said. "I will remember it forever."
Harvey called her deployment "life changing."
"It was by far the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I've ever done," she said.
Contact interactive content editor Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 8467.
Ellie