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KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Every morning outside Forward Operating Base Blessing, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, combat medics comb through a crowd of sick or injured Afghans desperate for medical attention.
"This is their ER. If something happens, this is where they are going to come," said Army Spc. Danielle Lafoille, of Manistique, Mich.
In fact, since arriving at FOB Blessing last July, the 1st Infantry Division Soldiers have treated more than 4,000 Afghans, some walking as long as two days for treatment.
Although handling mostly minor ailments, such as cuts and runny noses, the aid station has seen its fair share of major injuries.
"We see burns, lacerations; we do get gunshot wounds, major bone breaks. Just a huge variety of things you see in the local U.S. trauma room," said Army Spc. Timothy Lickiss, a combat medic from Chester, Calif.
"Right now we're treating two patients who had hot tar spilled on them during an industrial accident," said Army Spc. Jeremy Shepler, combat medic.
"He was only wearing sandals," one of the station's two physicians said. "If this was the U.S., he would have been required to wear rubber boots and gloves. Now he's just lucky he's going to keep his feet."
Many ailments the Soldiers treat are not seen in the U.S. because of occupational safety regulations and vaccinations.
"If they had a higher standard of hygiene or healthcare, a lot of these illnesses would be removed," Shepler said.
Although service members have been working with Afghan physicians since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, many local clinics in Konar province still do not have the knowledge to properly treat these types of injuries, causing many villagers to turn to the U.S. for help.
"[The local clinics] are great at some things, but then they'll miss some simple things," Shepler said. "They may have the technology to do X-rays, but they end up applying bandages like tourniquets."
A major concern for FOB Blessing's aid station is bone setters, practicing what the medics call "old remedies."
"A person will have a broken bone, and they go to the local bone setter, who will put eggs on it. As crazy as it is, that is some of the stuff we have seen," Lafoille said.
With only one surgeon and one physician's assistant, the aid station is not always able to provide higher levels of care. If necessary, the Soldiers will evacuate the injured Afghans to other FOBs with better facilities.
"We treat them the best we can here," Lickiss said. "But we won't hesitate to push them out to other FOBs with larger facilities if we need to."
As the end of their deployment nears, the Soldiers know they have made a difference among the Afghan people.
"The locals have learned to trust our medicine, because we bring the standards that [we have] in the U.S.," Shepler said. "They come to us knowing that we have the knowledge and experience to make sure that they get better."
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 04.09.2009 07:32 |
| Story ID: | 32188 |
| Location: | KONAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 451 |
| Downloads: | 397 |
This work, Medics turn Forward Operating Base aid station into Afghan emergency room, by Matthew Moeller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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