Better Lucky Than Good

We had three trauma patients come in during my last shift. All three were IED victims. Again, this is the terrorist weapon of choice.

My first patient was just 6 feet away from a blast. He sustained injuries to his face, right hand, and left thigh. Amazingly, the worst of his injuries was a broken finger. He has shrapnel in his chin and his left thigh. He did not need to go to the Operating Room for any of it. Instead, we sent him back to his FOB (forward operating base). Later on I wondered to myselft if that was the right thing to do. After all, the guy just went through some really traumatic stuff. He was air evacuated here to Bagram. Most trauma patients are brought here that way. That's not your typical day for an airmen like this guy. Regardless, he is now back in the fight.

This morning at 0600 two Norwegian casualties came our way. They were hit by an IED after responding to help out after a different explosion. Both patients had serious eye injuries. We called our eye surgeon STAT. He came and did a full exam on my patient right there in the ER. It was awesome to have an Ophthalmologist there in no time. After all, he is the ONLY eye surgeon in all of Afghanistan! That includes the civilian sector as well. This is a third world country. There medical system is probably 50-100 years behind the western world. But I digress. Our eye surgeon was able to take both patients to the operating room this morning. Both Norwegians had their eye sight saved!!!

So, it was a good night overall. In this war as in life, it's always a must to be "Better Lucky Than Good".