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GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Doctors from Task Force White Eagle, along with their colleagues in Poland, are fighting to save the leg of a 22-year old Afghan woman who suffered severe burns.
The woman, the wife of a contractor working on Forward Operating Base Ghazni, was burned after she fainted while baking bread in her home. The family attempted to get treatment in Ghazni and Kabul, but the Afghan facilities lacked the specialized facilities to treat her injury. Three weeks after the injury, a coalition forces interpreter approached Polish doctors at FOB Ghazni, Jan. 13, for help on their behalf.
When she arrived on FOB Ghazni, doctors found the burned leg was already infected.
"After cleaning the wound, it was necessary to remove dead tissue,” said Dr. Robert Pustulka, TF White Eagle surgeon. “The woman was given antibiotics and general treatment was started, because in addition to the burns, the patient was very weak.”
Because FOB Ghazni’s field hospital does not have the equipment necessary to permit a proper diagnosis or provide the subsequent treatment of the patient, the doctors began consultations with military doctors in Warsaw, Poland. They discussed the possibility of treating the Afghan woman in Poland at the Military Medical Institute.
"Treatment in Poland is the only way to save the threatened limb from amputation,” said Maj. Robert Brzozowski. “On FOB Ghazni it is not even possible to execute a culture from the wound. That makes it difficult to determine the type of bacteria that caused the infection and combating the infection is a primary concern for further specialist treatment. But most importantly, the Military Medical Institute Burn Treatment Center in Warsaw has vast experience in treating such difficult cases.”
In addition to the treatment needed, the field hospital on FOB Ghazni does not have a separate room where the patient could be hospitalized with an unknown type of bacteria in a burned limb.
A helicopter transported the woman and her husband to FOB Sharana, Jan. 18, where they boarded a fixed-wing aircraft to Poland.
Treatment in Poland will be conducted in the Clinical Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burn Treatment, Military Medical Institute in Warsaw. There the medical staff will perform a proper diagnosis and, based on the results, determine the possibility of saving the burned limb.
| Date Taken: | 01.17.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.18.2011 12:37 |
| Story ID: | 63740 |
| Location: | GHAZNI PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 103 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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