Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
October 2, 2008
By Associated Press
BALAD, Iraq — The U.S. military's main combat hospital in Iraq has increasingly switched to helping Iraqis. As the numbers of wounded American soldiers have fallen, the hospital is now saving the lives of a remarkable 93 percent of Iraqis who come with devastating injuries.
It's another sign of the radical improvements in health care made at combat trauma care units in wartime — especially because unlike U.S. soldiers, most Iraqi patients at the Air Force Theater Hospital don't wear body armor and helmets or drive in vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs.
"There are people with injuries that are brought here, and I say this with confidence, if they went anywhere else in the world, they would not survive," said Col. Mark Mavity, the commander of the hospital.
On one recent day, 5-year-old Sajad Lafta lay in his bed crying for his father while his older half-brother, Abdul Wahid, tried to comfort him by holding up a picture of a puppy that Sajad colored while recovering at the hospital.
The boy didn't know yet that Wahid, 25, came to visit him because his father was attending the funerals for two of his other young sons. They were killed by a car bomb that blew off Sajad's lower left leg and left tiny pieces of metal scattered over his body.
"Thank God, we are positive he is going to live," said Wahid, who planned to bring the puppy picture home to their mother as proof that Sajad was alive.
Over the years, the hospital on Balad Air Base has become synonymous with combat trauma care. It is best known for saving countless U.S. soldiers with catastrophic battle injuries — more than 96 percent on average over the six-month period ending in August.
But even more astonishing: During that same time, about 93 percent of Iraqis left the hospital alive — up from an average of 89.7 percent during the previous six months.
Their injuries are devastating — shredded limbs, penetrating shrapnel fragments, massive internal bleeding and gaping head wounds.
"The magnitude of injury is something that's unlike what we typically experience in the civilian world. … We had a gentleman (from the blast) with an arm blown off, a leg blown off, a kidney that was destroyed, huge soft tissue injuries, a head injury, and he's alive today," said trauma chief Maj. Gary Vercruysse, an Air Force reservist who is an assistant professor of surgery at Emory University and works at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
Trauma surgeon Lt. Col. Debra Malone spent four hours with one man alone, closing up his amputated finger, reconnecting pieces of his shredded bowel and washing out severe wounds.
Iraqi patients are surviving at higher rates partly because of bed space. As violence declines and fewer Americans are brought to the hospital, Iraqis can stay longer and receive more thorough care. The hospital admitted 140 trauma patients — including Americans and Iraqis — last month, less than half the number of August 2007.
October 2, 2008
By Associated Press
BALAD, Iraq — The U.S. military's main combat hospital in Iraq has increasingly switched to helping Iraqis. As the numbers of wounded American soldiers have fallen, the hospital is now saving the lives of a remarkable 93 percent of Iraqis who come with devastating injuries.
It's another sign of the radical improvements in health care made at combat trauma care units in wartime — especially because unlike U.S. soldiers, most Iraqi patients at the Air Force Theater Hospital don't wear body armor and helmets or drive in vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs.
"There are people with injuries that are brought here, and I say this with confidence, if they went anywhere else in the world, they would not survive," said Col. Mark Mavity, the commander of the hospital.
On one recent day, 5-year-old Sajad Lafta lay in his bed crying for his father while his older half-brother, Abdul Wahid, tried to comfort him by holding up a picture of a puppy that Sajad colored while recovering at the hospital.
The boy didn't know yet that Wahid, 25, came to visit him because his father was attending the funerals for two of his other young sons. They were killed by a car bomb that blew off Sajad's lower left leg and left tiny pieces of metal scattered over his body.
"Thank God, we are positive he is going to live," said Wahid, who planned to bring the puppy picture home to their mother as proof that Sajad was alive.
Over the years, the hospital on Balad Air Base has become synonymous with combat trauma care. It is best known for saving countless U.S. soldiers with catastrophic battle injuries — more than 96 percent on average over the six-month period ending in August.
But even more astonishing: During that same time, about 93 percent of Iraqis left the hospital alive — up from an average of 89.7 percent during the previous six months.
Their injuries are devastating — shredded limbs, penetrating shrapnel fragments, massive internal bleeding and gaping head wounds.
"The magnitude of injury is something that's unlike what we typically experience in the civilian world. … We had a gentleman (from the blast) with an arm blown off, a leg blown off, a kidney that was destroyed, huge soft tissue injuries, a head injury, and he's alive today," said trauma chief Maj. Gary Vercruysse, an Air Force reservist who is an assistant professor of surgery at Emory University and works at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
Trauma surgeon Lt. Col. Debra Malone spent four hours with one man alone, closing up his amputated finger, reconnecting pieces of his shredded bowel and washing out severe wounds.
Iraqi patients are surviving at higher rates partly because of bed space. As violence declines and fewer Americans are brought to the hospital, Iraqis can stay longer and receive more thorough care. The hospital admitted 140 trauma patients — including Americans and Iraqis — last month, less than half the number of August 2007.