Tonight I was able to be a part of some impressive American Military Medical Might. We had 4 trauma patients arrive. The system is very organized. We knew who was coming and what their injuries were at the smaller facilities deep in Afghanistan. Each patient received a thorough exam. Our surgical staff was present. There was no need to page anyone or make any phone calls. My patient had a busted up jaw in addition to a bunch of other broken bones. I was able to discuss this with our ENT surgeon right then and there. We had the patient in the CT Scanner within 5 minutes. He was in the operating room within 20 minutes.
This is why lives are being saved over here. We have incredible recources here. We have a great system to get patients from deep in the war zone back to the states in a matter a few dozen hours. It's awesome to see the system working up front and to be a part of it.
The sad part is that the Americal Military Medical Might is being used so much. It is surreal to read an AP artical online about a suicide attack on a base in eastern Afghanistan, and then come into work and treat the victims right here. Most casualties in Afghanistan are coming right here to Bagram.
I have to be back at work in 6 hours. I better hit the rack.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
On to the ICU...
Hello again from Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. I have now been here about 1 week. It's been kind of a whirlwind. But, it has gone by fast. So far I have been spending most of my time getting settled in here. There are a lot of high ranking people here, thus, a lot of politics. Because of this we have to spend a bunch of time in briefings and training sessions. That's over now. Tomorrow I am in the Intensive Care Unit for my first day of official work.
Things are fairly slow here right now. The terrorists tend to hide in their caves for the winter. So, the violence typically goes down through these winter months. But, there have been no shortage of interesting patients so far. We have a 35 year old with a huge blood clot in his lungs called a saddle pulmonary embolus for all you non medical types. The guy almost died. We had to give him fibrolytics or "clot busting" medication. He came through remarkably well. Why did he get a blood clot in his lungs? Well, he just flew from Aghanistan to the U.S. and then back. Long periods of sitting can cause the blood to pool and then clot. This is probably what happened to him. So, get up and stretch those legs on the plane. That's my public service announcement for the day!
At 5:30 AM tomorrow I will be watching my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers hopefully kick some butt in the bowl game. Go Big Red!!
Things are fairly slow here right now. The terrorists tend to hide in their caves for the winter. So, the violence typically goes down through these winter months. But, there have been no shortage of interesting patients so far. We have a 35 year old with a huge blood clot in his lungs called a saddle pulmonary embolus for all you non medical types. The guy almost died. We had to give him fibrolytics or "clot busting" medication. He came through remarkably well. Why did he get a blood clot in his lungs? Well, he just flew from Aghanistan to the U.S. and then back. Long periods of sitting can cause the blood to pool and then clot. This is probably what happened to him. So, get up and stretch those legs on the plane. That's my public service announcement for the day!
At 5:30 AM tomorrow I will be watching my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers hopefully kick some butt in the bowl game. Go Big Red!!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Arrival in Afghanistan...
Hello Everyone from Bagram Air Field just outside Kabul, Afghanistan!
I arrived here early in the morning on Christmas Eve. Getting here was painful as expected. Military travel is hellacious to say the least. We crossed 11 time zones, had several flights in the middle of the night, and did not have a good night of sleep for 5 days in order to get here. The final leg involved 50 of us crammed into an extremely loud cargo plane called a C-130. We had our "full battle rattle" which consists of body armor, helmet, and weapons. It was 15 degrees outside when we took off for the 2 hour flight. Pretty soon thereafter the heat was blasting in the plane and it was probably 90 degrees in there. It was not fun. What else can I say?
I've now been at Bagram 4 days. I am living in a structure called a B Hut. It's a wooden building with living space partitioned off on the inside. My bed is comfortable. My area is about 8 x 6 feet. The bottom line is that it is my own for now. It's amazing to have some privacy. We do not have indoor plumbing living in a B Hut. There is a bathroom and shower facility about 50 yards away. Luckily, it has not been too cold so far. Walking outside to take a shower or go to bathroom during the middle of the night is not my favorite thing to do. Oh well, I will survive.
They are easing me into the job at work. I was a bit shocked on Christmas day to find out that I will be working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) here. We have a nice hospital here at Bagram. Last year it was one of the busiest trauma hospitals in the world. It has room for about 50 inpatients. We also have busy clinics too. We have many specialists here, primarily surgeons for all the trauma patients. Our ENT surgeon is my next door neighbor. We also have a neurosurgeon, a trauma surgeon (known as the "trauma czar"), an eye surgeon, 2 orthopedic surgeons, 3 general surgeons, etc.
Right now most of our hospital patients are Afghans. We treat a lot of locals here when they are victims of violence for whatever reason. On Christmas day we had an Afghan patient who was a pedestrian hit by one of our vehicles. He did not make it. It's unclear if he intentionally walked out in front of the vehicle. Apparently that has happened in the past because payments have been made to Afghans for this type of thing. All I know is that we did everything we could to save this guy, but his injuries were just too devastating.
Okay, I think that is enough for now. Tomorrow I will start working full time. It should be interesting having a little old family doc in the ICU of a busy military trauma hospital!!!
I arrived here early in the morning on Christmas Eve. Getting here was painful as expected. Military travel is hellacious to say the least. We crossed 11 time zones, had several flights in the middle of the night, and did not have a good night of sleep for 5 days in order to get here. The final leg involved 50 of us crammed into an extremely loud cargo plane called a C-130. We had our "full battle rattle" which consists of body armor, helmet, and weapons. It was 15 degrees outside when we took off for the 2 hour flight. Pretty soon thereafter the heat was blasting in the plane and it was probably 90 degrees in there. It was not fun. What else can I say?
I've now been at Bagram 4 days. I am living in a structure called a B Hut. It's a wooden building with living space partitioned off on the inside. My bed is comfortable. My area is about 8 x 6 feet. The bottom line is that it is my own for now. It's amazing to have some privacy. We do not have indoor plumbing living in a B Hut. There is a bathroom and shower facility about 50 yards away. Luckily, it has not been too cold so far. Walking outside to take a shower or go to bathroom during the middle of the night is not my favorite thing to do. Oh well, I will survive.
They are easing me into the job at work. I was a bit shocked on Christmas day to find out that I will be working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) here. We have a nice hospital here at Bagram. Last year it was one of the busiest trauma hospitals in the world. It has room for about 50 inpatients. We also have busy clinics too. We have many specialists here, primarily surgeons for all the trauma patients. Our ENT surgeon is my next door neighbor. We also have a neurosurgeon, a trauma surgeon (known as the "trauma czar"), an eye surgeon, 2 orthopedic surgeons, 3 general surgeons, etc.
Right now most of our hospital patients are Afghans. We treat a lot of locals here when they are victims of violence for whatever reason. On Christmas day we had an Afghan patient who was a pedestrian hit by one of our vehicles. He did not make it. It's unclear if he intentionally walked out in front of the vehicle. Apparently that has happened in the past because payments have been made to Afghans for this type of thing. All I know is that we did everything we could to save this guy, but his injuries were just too devastating.
Okay, I think that is enough for now. Tomorrow I will start working full time. It should be interesting having a little old family doc in the ICU of a busy military trauma hospital!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)