by Spc. Rich Vogt
138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
MOSUL, Iraq (October 6, 2006) – The medical personnel of Company C, 296 Brigade Support Battalion who live and work in northern Iraq call themselves the Witchdoctors, but the things they do for the Soldiers sweating and toiling in Iraq is anything but frightful.
The Witchdoctors operate a clinic located at Forward Operating Base Marez, Mosul, Iraq. They are able to take care of the everyday aches and pains, perform partial resuscitation, stabilize a patient, treat trauma victims, and evacuate patients by ground or air to the Combat Support Hospital at Logistical Support Area Diamondback; a more advanced facility. The company is also responsible for the care of thirty to forty inmates at the local detainee facility.
"The inmates are, generally speaking, older and sicker," said Dr. (Capt.) Simeon Ashworth, a specialist in emergency medicine. "They may have never had any sort of health care, and arrive with problems such as high blood pressure or other chronic conditions."
The detainees are prescreened when they are admitted to the facility so they can not claim prior existing injuries were sustained while they were detained.
The company includes a mental health specialist, a nurse, two physicians, three physician's assistants, X-ray equipment, a lab, and a pharmacy.
The company also performs outreach missions in the community.
"The medics go on missions to support convoys," Ashworth said. "Every trip requires a medic."
According to Ashworth, risks to Soldiers include Improvised Explosive Devices, gun shot wounds, heat illness, infections, leishmaniasis, snakes, rabies from cats and rodents.
"We cover the whole brigade, about 4,000 Soldiers," Ashworth said. "We see approximately 20 patients a day."
The company's new mission is to train Iraqi medical personnel. According to Ashworth, The Iraqis need the skills to handle mass casualty situations and field trauma treatment, so they can stop the bleeding on the spot. The idea is to continue to turn areas over to Iraqi control, both for operation and support.
Lt. Derek Felder, company executive officer and Sgt. 1st Class Jeffery Lanter, platoon Sgt., are on the same Iraqi medical training team. The commanders from the 2nd Iraqi Army Division and 3rd Iraqi Army Division helped draft the plan for the IA medical training.
"They'll get basic Soldier first aid, first responder level training," Lanter said. "[Iraqi] medics who've met that standard already, will get more training. They'll learn how to stop the bleeding and get the patients somewhere where they can get more treatment. I feel good about my job. We are a small company that delivers a lot of medical care to a vast area. We do a lot of shuffling to make sure no mission gets dropped."
"My main responsibility is to help the company commander," said Felder who has to attend meetings and send reports to battalion. "Ultimately, our goal is to train Iraqis to take over and to be able to do things by themselves."
According to Felder, It is not all work and no play for this group. They make sure to get some down time and grow as a unit. Felder talked about the "Sandy Britches" event the unit held at the Community Activity Center, where they competed against each other.
"There were different games," Felder said. "A tomahawk throw, horseshoes, a lot of backwoods stuff, making tent poles, making fires."
"It's great," Ashworth concluded about the companies job in Iraq. "It's rewarding."
| Date Taken: | 10.06.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 10.13.2006 09:36 |
| Story ID: | 8014 |
| Location: | MOSUL, IQ |
| Web Views: | 233 |
| Downloads: | 172 |
This work, Witchdoctors bring magic to Mosul, by SPC Richard Vogt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
