Navy medical officer trains corpsmen to go above standard and is awarded

Photo By Sgt. Austin Long | U.S. Navy corpsmen transports a Afghan National Army soldier to a UH-60 BlackHawk medevac helicopter at Patrol Base Sabit Qadam Sept. 19. Corpsmen have approximately 15 minutes to stabilize and prepare a patient for transport. (Photo by Cpl. Austin Long)  

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SABIT QADAM, AFGHANISTAN

09.06.2013

Story by Cpl. Austin Long 

Regional Command Southwest

FOB SABIT QADAM, Afghanistan - Medical officials in Afghanistan awarded its top award for out-of-hospital trauma care to Lt. Hans Hulsebos, the battalion surgeon with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, at Forward Operating Base Sabit Qadam, Sept. 6.

Medical staff at the Joint Theatre Trauma System in Bagram, Afghanistan, presented the Ditch Medicine Award to the lieutenant for his commitment and dedication to pre-hospital care.

Officials reviewed aid stations throughout Afghanistan and presented the award to the general medical provider based on the number of patients seen at the facility, the quality of care performed on the patient, and the method used for recording patient care.

The aid station serves as a Role 1 Medical Treatment Facility and is equipped to provide the basic echelon of medical care.
In general, Role 1 facilities are capable of providing first aid, immediate lifesaving measures and triage. However, the medical treatment provided to patients at Sabit Qadam was beyond what was expected of Hulsebos and his corpsmen and therefore drew the attention and recognition from leadership at JTTS.

The JTTS focused on Role 1 facilities and noticed the patients coming from Sabit Qadam had a survivability rate of 95 percent, just three percent less than patients at Role 3 medical facilities, including Camp Bastion.

Although JTTS selected Hulsebos for the award, he credits his corpsmen for the quality of medical care provided at the aid station. He said his “corpsmen do 98 percent of the work.”

Prior to their deployment, Hulsebos began teaching the corpsmen advanced techniques for treatment through simulated training exercises. According to Petty Officer 3rd Class Martin Burrola, Hulsebos pushed the corpsmen to learn advanced techniques by rehearsing realistic scenarios until they developed the muscle memory to respond to them.

“Before the deployment, he ran us through multiple scenarios to prepare us for what we could potentially face in Afghanistan,” said Burrola, who is a trauma leader assistant. “He would run us through the basics multiple times until we learned them.”

Burrola said Hulsebos continues to teach the corpsmen while in Afghanistan by evaluating their performance in after action reports. After each patient is transferred from the medical facility, Hulsebos talks the corpsmen through the treatment administered to the patient and discusses alternative ways the patient could have been stabilized.

“It’s because of my corpsmen’s passion, their motivation for treating battle wounds, and doing more than what is expected of them that has gotten us this recognition,” said Hulsebos.

• Date Taken: 09.06.2013
• Date Posted: 09.25.2013 02:38
• Story ID: 114211
• Location: FORWARD OPERATING BASE SABIT QADAM, AF
• Hometown: REDLANDS, CA, US
• Hometown: WARWICK, RI, US