thedrifter
06-01-03, 03:36 PM
Bataan's floating medical staff has seen it all
By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 31, 2003
ABOARD THE BATAAN -- After treating 1,500 patients so far in a 4 1/2 -month deployment, nurse practitioner Lt. Andrew Galvin thought he'd just about seen it all.
Until he saw inside an abdomen during a hernia operation.
Galvin, 35, had diagnosed the patient on Monday as having a ruptured hernia. When it came time for the surgery on Thursday, staff surgeon Cmdr. Charles Bissell invited Galvin to assist.
Galvin jumped at the chance.
``He came to sick call complaining about swelling, and I found it,'' Galvin said. ``To feel the lump, and then be in the operating room a few days later seeing what you had felt looks like on the inside, and then to help fix it? What a rush!''
The hernia operation, a double, was Galvin's first but Bissell's fifth on this cruise. Galvin and Bissell, both from Chesapeake, are among the 80 medical personnel aboard the Bataan, a Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship.
Bissell has been performing a flurry of other operations as the Bataan heads home. Some are emergencies, like the hernia operation. But many others are elective procedures that the staff declined on the way over to ensure that the crew was ready for war, instead of recovering from, say, vasectomies, which Bissell said are the most common operations performed on the ship.
The medical department has had a busy cruise even before the run on elective surgeries. Its staff inoculated 2,300 people against smallpox and 3,000 against anthrax, responded to 45 emergencies, and performed 46 surgeries with more syllables than a layman can understand.
Among the procedures performed so far: a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), a salpingostomy for an ectopic pregnancy diagnosed via ultrasound, appendectomies, multiple orthopedic cases, hernia repairs, colonoscopies and esophageal scopes.
``We have a more advanced laparoscopic surgery capability than most hospitals,'' said chief medical officer Cmdr. Thomas K. Tandy.
Bissell, who has been practicing medicine since 1990, said operating on a ship is pretty much like working in operating rooms ashore.
``What we do here is the same as we do back home, except on a rocking platform,'' Bissell said, nonchalantly prepping for the double-hernia repair, which lasted about two hours and 15 minutes.
``This is a big ship, so you don't really feel it, unless we have some rough seas,'' Bissell said. ``If that happens, you just need to hold on.''
Tandy said the department also keeps the ship clear of health hazards and in a state of good hygiene, through inspections of the mess decks and galleys, the laundry, barber shops, sculleries, toilets, fruit and vegetable on-loads, and potable water.
The medical staff also monitored sailors and Marines working in the Persian Gulf for heat stress, and hearing loss for those in high-noise areas. And they checked for tuberculosis exposure and Gulf War Syndrome and screened for HIV.
They also administered routine immunizations against tetanus, typhoid, hepatitis and yellow fever. And they delivered educational programs and lectures on nutritional supplements, weight-loss programs and sexually transmitted diseases.
Though the Bataan's medical center didn't treat any casualties of war, staff members did see 32 patients sent aboard from other ships. Some were sent to higher-echelon medical centers ashore and 12 were sent back for duty aboard their ship.
Thursday's hernia patient, a 23-year-old sailor, will be back to work in a matter of days.
Staff writer Dennis O'Brien is with the Marines and sailors of Task Force Tarawa on their way back from Iraq. He has been with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based Marines since they left the coast of North Carolina in mid-January.
Sempers,
Roger
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=54866&ran=214199
By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 31, 2003
ABOARD THE BATAAN -- After treating 1,500 patients so far in a 4 1/2 -month deployment, nurse practitioner Lt. Andrew Galvin thought he'd just about seen it all.
Until he saw inside an abdomen during a hernia operation.
Galvin, 35, had diagnosed the patient on Monday as having a ruptured hernia. When it came time for the surgery on Thursday, staff surgeon Cmdr. Charles Bissell invited Galvin to assist.
Galvin jumped at the chance.
``He came to sick call complaining about swelling, and I found it,'' Galvin said. ``To feel the lump, and then be in the operating room a few days later seeing what you had felt looks like on the inside, and then to help fix it? What a rush!''
The hernia operation, a double, was Galvin's first but Bissell's fifth on this cruise. Galvin and Bissell, both from Chesapeake, are among the 80 medical personnel aboard the Bataan, a Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship.
Bissell has been performing a flurry of other operations as the Bataan heads home. Some are emergencies, like the hernia operation. But many others are elective procedures that the staff declined on the way over to ensure that the crew was ready for war, instead of recovering from, say, vasectomies, which Bissell said are the most common operations performed on the ship.
The medical department has had a busy cruise even before the run on elective surgeries. Its staff inoculated 2,300 people against smallpox and 3,000 against anthrax, responded to 45 emergencies, and performed 46 surgeries with more syllables than a layman can understand.
Among the procedures performed so far: a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), a salpingostomy for an ectopic pregnancy diagnosed via ultrasound, appendectomies, multiple orthopedic cases, hernia repairs, colonoscopies and esophageal scopes.
``We have a more advanced laparoscopic surgery capability than most hospitals,'' said chief medical officer Cmdr. Thomas K. Tandy.
Bissell, who has been practicing medicine since 1990, said operating on a ship is pretty much like working in operating rooms ashore.
``What we do here is the same as we do back home, except on a rocking platform,'' Bissell said, nonchalantly prepping for the double-hernia repair, which lasted about two hours and 15 minutes.
``This is a big ship, so you don't really feel it, unless we have some rough seas,'' Bissell said. ``If that happens, you just need to hold on.''
Tandy said the department also keeps the ship clear of health hazards and in a state of good hygiene, through inspections of the mess decks and galleys, the laundry, barber shops, sculleries, toilets, fruit and vegetable on-loads, and potable water.
The medical staff also monitored sailors and Marines working in the Persian Gulf for heat stress, and hearing loss for those in high-noise areas. And they checked for tuberculosis exposure and Gulf War Syndrome and screened for HIV.
They also administered routine immunizations against tetanus, typhoid, hepatitis and yellow fever. And they delivered educational programs and lectures on nutritional supplements, weight-loss programs and sexually transmitted diseases.
Though the Bataan's medical center didn't treat any casualties of war, staff members did see 32 patients sent aboard from other ships. Some were sent to higher-echelon medical centers ashore and 12 were sent back for duty aboard their ship.
Thursday's hernia patient, a 23-year-old sailor, will be back to work in a matter of days.
Staff writer Dennis O'Brien is with the Marines and sailors of Task Force Tarawa on their way back from Iraq. He has been with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based Marines since they left the coast of North Carolina in mid-January.
Sempers,
Roger
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=54866&ran=214199