The Best People

In the past week, a wave of new doctors, nurses, and medics arrived here at Bagram. These are our much anticipated "replacements". I am sure the group with is filled with plenty of talented people. There are not many things that I will miss about this deployment. But, I have met many outstanding people that I will always remember. Some of them set themselves apart in my mind.

How about Airmen Chris? He is a physical therapy assistant who was assigned to the hospital ward and intensive care unit. His job involved working with very sick patients every day. He would help intubated patients move their arms and legs. He would walk patients with amputations and shattered bones. He would take patients outside who had not seen the light of day in weeks. He did this all with a smile, a great sense of humor, and an infectious laugh. Airmen Chris is planning to get a masters in physical therapy. I have no doubt he will be highly successful.

Then there is Sergeant Jen in the ER. She is a positive, upbeat person who embraced her job as a medic. She was clearly a valuable member of the emergency room team. She worked on countless trauma patients. Sergeant Jen would disconnect the patients from the myriad of medical equipment they are attached to upon arrival and then help resuscitate them. Doing this expeditiously is very important as many of these patients need blood transfusions and surgery not later but NOW. One day I found out that Sergeant Jen will be starting medical school this summer. It did not surprise me one bit. What did surprise me was learning that she is a ivy league graduate from the University of Pennsylvania... she is smarter than all of us!

Nurse Laura volunteered to come to Afghanistan leaving behind a nice life in California. She is a member of the Air Force Reserves and was assigned to work in the Contingency Air Stage Facility (CASF). This is essentially a large tent behind the hospital that houses patients awaiting a medical flight to Germany. The CASF staff takes care of these patients, but they also serve as the staff to plan the flights to Germany. The CASF staff has moved up to 60 patients on one flight. That's amazing! Nurse Laura impressed me in many ways, but mostly because she helps the patients feel like human beings. The patients are often very affected by their war experience. They need someone to talk to about their lives. Nurse Laura gets to know them on a personal level. Often, she takes them to the coffee shop or to the dining facility. This helps them transition back to normalcy. She and the rest of the CASF staff help the troops to be regular people again.

Not all surgeons are created equal. Right away when I met Surgeon Todd he was different. He was soft spoken and friendly. He seemed to set everyone at ease in tense situations. As a vascular surgeon, he is a highly trained professional who repairs blood vessels for a living. He once helped reattach an amputated arm. That's intense! I enjoyed working with him because he was down to earth and humble. These are rare qualities in surgeons. But, Surgeon Todd also was assertive when he needed to be. At a meeting one of our commanders gave the doctors a lecture about how it was important to ALWAYS be nice to the nurses and medics. Surgeon Todd disagreed. He stated that sometimes people need to be told exactly what to do. When they make the same mistake repeatedly, then yelling at them is okay. After all, we are in the military and our mission is about saving lives.

Colonel Joe the dermatologist is well known in the Army medical world. You would never know this talking to him because he seems like a regular guy. But, he was instrumental in bringing a dermatologist to the Iraq War after soldiers started showing up by the dozen with nasty skin lesions from Leishmaniasis. This is a skin disease caused by camel spider bites. It can leave disfiguring scars. Colonel Joe has now deployed 3 times. He is a great dermatologist. The only requirement for a referral to him is that the patient has skin! He stays in fine shape by running almost every morning at dawn. When he was running one morning, a group of females yelled "NICE BUTT" as they drove by in their armored vehicle. Colonel Joe took it in stride. After all, he is the coolest colonel I know.

I have met so many good people here at Bagram that it would be difficult to mention them all. In my experience, it is the people that make or break a situation. I was able to get through this deployment because of the people here. And, the best people are the ones that made an impression on me that will last well beyond the confines of Bagram.