4th SB conducts combat lifesaver training

Photo By Capt. Monika Comeaux | Pfc. Ryan C. Wilson, an eye technician with Special Troops Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade watches Sgt. Ricky B. Mitchell, a multiple launch rocket system crewmember "bleeds" an IV line in preparation of administering the IV.  

TAJI, IRAQ

04.26.2006

Courtesy Story

DVIDS Hub       

CAMP TAJI, Iraq - Medical personnel of the 4th Sustainment Brigade conducted a Combat Lifesaver Course in March.

"We offer the classes during the last two weeks of each month," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Bollinger, a mental health specialist with the Special Troops Battalion (STB), 4th SB.

The course is 40-hours and is taught in four days. This particular class had 18 participants from different units on Camp Taji and is the sixth class that the STB medical personnel have run.

"The CLS is to bridge the training that you get in basic training and the training that medics receive, it is kind of halfway between," Bollinger said.

Since the CLS curriculum has significantly changed, Soldiers who already participated in the class cannot simply recertify " they need to take the new course.
"They cut out a lot of stuff you don't really use and implemented better techniques," said Spc. Mark Williams, a multiple launch rocket system operator with Battery B, 1st Battalion, 117th Field Artillery.

"The whole thing has changed," said Sgt. Laqnda Harris, a light-wheeled vehicle mechanic with the 115th Cargo Transfer Company. "For example, you don't give an IV (intravenous) to every single casualty."

Harris has been through two combat lifesaver courses before. She volunteered to attend this one, along with two other Soldiers from her company. Since she took some nursing courses before she joined the military, she correctly administered the IV on her partner on the first try.

Others weren't so fortunate. Williams was stuck four times before the IV was administered properly.

"I feel good he finally got it in," Williams said. "He would have had it the first time, if I didn't start laughing and the needle didn't fall out."

The hardest and most exciting part of the course is, in fact, administering the IV, said Bollinger.

Many are actually more afraid of hurting their buddies than being stuck.

The curriculum was changed based on lessons learned during recent operations from Desert Storm to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Bollinger said.

Under the old curriculum, combat lifesavers were taught to start administering fluids intravenously in all cases except for a head injury, now there are several instances when they only put a catheter in with a saline block, instead of automatically starting to run saline solution.

Another difference is that instead of the J-tube or oropharyngeal airway to keep the unconscious casualty's airway open, combat lifesavers now use a nasopharyngeal tube, Bollinger explained.

Once a Soldier has been through the new course, the Soldier has to recertify once a year.

The CLS courses taught by the 4th SB medical personnel are open to all units on Camp Taji. The books and training equipment are ordered and provided by the brigade.

Combat lifesavers are issued their bags by their individual units upon graduation.

• Date Taken: 04.26.2006
• Date Posted: 04.26.2006 10:50
• Story ID: 6121
• Location: TAJI, IQ