Blue and Green saving lives as a team

Photo By Staff Sgt. Tony Simmons | U.S. Navy field medical service technicians with Company C, 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, along with Navy Health Service Augmentation Program personnel prepare a mock casualty for evacuation during a field casualty training exercise at the Balboa Symposium, Naval Medical Center San Diego, June 18, 2015. The hospital corpsmen and field medical service technicians worked together to operate a field shock trauma and forward resuscitative surgical suite.  

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES

06.18.2015

Story by Cpl. Tony Simmons 

I Marine Expeditionary Force

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. Navy field medical service technicians with Company C, 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, trained with Navy Health Service Augmentation Program personnel during a field casualty training exercise at the Balboa Symposium, Naval Medical Center San Diego, June 18, 2015.

The exercise involved role players and mannequins as mock casualties to assist platoons in Company C, 1st Med. Bn., 1st MLG, in building partnership between field medics and HSAPs.

“The HSAPs we are training with work at Balboa, so this is a good opportunity for us to work together prior to a deployment in the event we have to augment someone,” said Navy Lt. Sarah Cosgrove, the executive officer for Company C, 1st Med. Bn., 1st MLG. “It is difficult taking the HSAPs away from the hospital for large exercises, so doing a smaller one helps prepare them for future augments.”

To begin the exercise, casualties were loaded into the back of an ambulance and assessed for injuries.

“As corpsmen triage the injured, they decide who is most critically wounded and needs to be treated first,” said HN Nathan S. Coddins, a field medical service technician with Company C, 1st Med. Bn., 1st MLG. “We then take them to the shock trauma room to begin treating the patient.”

The critically-wounded mock casualty was wearing a bleed suit, a suit that allows doctors and nurses to cut into the patient and perform surgeries without affecting the person wearing it.

After some corpsmen moved the severely-wounded patient to the operating room, other corpsmen carried the next priority service member into the shock trauma area.

As the HSAPs and corpsmen were working, instructors evaluated them to ensure patients received proper care throughout the exercise.

“I expect my sailors to learn from the clinical professionals in terms of how to approach a patient situation and how to tackle various complications that could occur,” said Navy Capt. Theodore P. Briski, the commanding officer of 1st Med. Bn., 1st MLG. “They will continue to hone the teamwork that is necessary for us to operate in an expeditionary environment.”

Once the casualties were treated and stable, they were loaded onto stretchers and moved back to the ambulance for evacuation.

When the training was completed, the lead instructor gathered everyone to conduct a mission debrief and discuss the outcome and lessons learned from the exercise.

Marines and Sailors with 1st Med. Bn., 1st MLG, continue to train and work as a team to build their skills in an effort to prepare for any expeditionary needs that may require their assistance.

• Date Taken: 06.18.2015
• Date Posted: 06.24.2015 20:00
• Story ID: 167714
• Location: SAN DIEGO, CA, US