Photo By Staff Sgt. Jon Soles | Soldiers bring a mannequin representing a wounded soldier into the operating room of...... read more read more
FORT MCCOY, Wis. – One minute the tent looked like any other drab shelter in the field on a military installation. The next minute, a dozen Army doctors, nurses and medics scrambled out the door to tend to blood-covered soldiers in tattered uniforms. In the midst of the chaos, calm and practiced hands delivered precise, rehearsed medical care to the injured. One pair of hands applied pressure to a gunshot wound, another bandaged a chest wound.
This was the scene on Forward Operating Base Liberty March 29, as soldiers of the 399th Combat Support Hospital (CSH), 804th Medical Brigade, 3rd Medical Command, practiced life-saving scenarios using life-like mannequins with simulated injuries during an annual Warrior Exercise (WAREX), involving more than 4,500 soldiers from dozens of units across 30 states and Puerto Rico.
The 399th CSH deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom and many of its soldiers have first-hand experience caring for soldiers wounded in battle. The CSH here was set up to emulate one found in a deployed environment, right down to an operating room and pharmacy. The goal of the training is to improve critical care skills needed to save wounded warriors.
“We went from dirt and tents in a bag to an operating combat support hospital in 48 hours,” said Lt. Col. Michael Yaffe, deputy commander of clinical services at the 399th CSH during WAREX.
When a wounded soldier arrives at a CSH, the first step is to remove them from an ambulance or a helicopter. Even the placement of the litters inside the ambulance, from the lower left shelf to the top right, tell the first responder the precedence from most severely to least-injured soldiers. The first stop is the triage tent, where doctors nurses and medics make an initial assessment and perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and control bleeding of open wounds.
The severely wounded soldiers are rushed into a trauma bay, where their condition is stabilized allowing an operation or surgery to be performed. Doctors are capable of performing various operations such as repairing femur fractures or gunshot wounds. After surgery, the injured Soldier is moved to the Intensive Care Unit or the Intermediate Care Ward until they can be medically evacuated to a hospital in the rear. The CSH is designed to only keep soldiers for up to 72 hours.
“What we’ve seen during our training here are penetrating injuries, mostly head, abdominal and extremity injuries caused by gunshots or roadside bombs,” said Yaffe, a native of Boston. “Two soldiers with non-survivable injuries expired but we have saved the lives of 17 soldiers.”
The mannequins are treated with the same sense of urgency and attention live casualties would receive. Every minute of realistic training the Army’s hospital soldiers receive now may make the difference between life and death for a warrior wounded.
“The training is realistic and I am just awestruck to be around so much medical knowledge and expertise,” said Spc. Ian Delmar, a medic assigned to the 399th CSH. “After each scenario, I learn something different with each patient, what we did right and what we did wrong and what we can do better next time to save the soldier’s life.”
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.01.2014 10:57 |
| Story ID: | 123511 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Hometown: | BOSTON, MA, US |
| Hometown: | LOWELL, MA, US |
| Web Views: | 254 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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