You are awakened by dispatch for a call of shots fired. You and your partner @ckemtp (only using him as an example because he's the first one I could think of at the time of writing) arrive on scene and find it secured by PD and find your pt. a 21 y/o male with a GSW to his upper leg and lower back. You treat according to protocol and transport to the trauma center...hopefully with a large bore or 2 in the arm.
same time...defferent location
You are awakened by someone shouting "DOC" you put your gear together while hearing gunfire. You get over and are pointed to your pt, a 21 y/o male with a GSW to his upper leg and lower back. He's CAOx3 and shouting. You pull back the charging handle of your weapon and attempt to make your way to your pt. His buddy nearby has already put a tourniquet on his upper leg. Your pt. is trying his best to return fire the same as you.
The locations: The first one is at your friendly neighborhood housing project with a gangbanger. The second...downtown Tikrit, Baghdad, or Kabul.
Today, the United States is at war. As a combat medic, it is possible that you will be called on to deploy to a foreign country and provide medical care in a combat zone. You need to understand the differences between trauma management in the homeland and trauma management in a foreign country during wartime.
AAOS, 68W Advanced Field Craft, 2009, p. 5
Trauma management in combat has its own hazards (that goes without saying).
Most of the time, "Doc" only has the equipment that's on his back. He's hoping that "Joe" has the basic first aid stuff on his person...or that his battle buddy has taken care of him the best he can.
Let's look at these two again...
@Ckemtp will be en route to the trauma center much sooner than "Doc" will. In combat, there could be as long as 25 minutes or MORE for some kind of transport to the closest hospital...with only 1000mL total of Hextend and 2000mL total of LR to keep "Joe" alive.
I will have to continue this in another post...
2 comments:
Very true John. My Paramedic instructor was a 16 year combat medic.He was a great teacher, solder and human being. I say was because he died almost a year ago. Your post reminds me of some of his lectures. Thank you for that.
Be well. looking forward to part II.
Hey, thanks for the shoutout. Military and civilian EMS differ vastly. For one, we civvies are bound by a complex set of rules and laws that do not necessarily aply on the battlefield. We also don't have Hextend... But of course, humans are humans. We civvies can learn a lot from battlefield medics but have to have a wider depth of medical assessment skills as well.
Of course, where I am, we're an hour from a trauma center and they usually aren't shooting at us.
Good stuff, buddy.
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