The last few days at the hospital have been pretty quiet overall. That's a good thing. So, no intense stories for you today. I'll get philosophical instead!
In the last few days I received a couple interesting emails. One was from a reporter in Charleston where I am stationed. He wants to put a link to my blog on the Charleston Post and Courier websit. I said no problem. In addition, two Viet Nam veterans emailed me. Both are friends with my uncles. One is a retired Navy Captain which means he did a career in the Navy. The other gentlemen has worked a lot on behalf of Viet Nam Veterans. (interestingly, both vets spelled it Viet Nam not Vietnam... I wonder why) At any rate, the common theme in all these emails was a deep sense of appreciation for our military. They all had kind words to say and thanked me pretty profusely for my service.
It is great to receive messages like this from strangers. It's also important to know that America is behind our military, despite what one's views are regarding this war. Any student of American history knows that it is not always been that way. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not have the support of the American people. When I got off the plane in Baltimore from my last deployment, there was a group of veterans/supporters at the airport thanking us. Awesome. When we left the U.S. this time around, there was also a group there in Banger, Maine to send us off warmly. Nice touch. In short, the support is fabulous. I know so many of my friends and family are praying for me. There is no doubt that it helps. THANK YOU!
The truth of the matter for me is that it's my duty to be here. I really believe that. Ten years ago I joined the Air Force. They gave me a full ride for medical school. The American taxpayers shelled out tens of thousands of dollars for my education. I am now paying it back. It's that simple. Nevertheless, if you would have told me in the year 2000 that I would be deployed to Afghanistan not once but twice in my career, I would not have believed you. I am not sure that I would have raised my right hand to take that oath... "I vow to defend the constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic". That's being honest. But, 9/11 happened and the world changed. The military has been asked to do a lot. So many service members have sacrificed a great deal. Too many have paid the ultimate sacrifice. For me, I am just doing my duty.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Maxim Magazine
My last entry was a bit intense. But, not everything that goes on here at Bagram in the middle of a combat zone is so serious. We have to find the humor in things as well. Yesterday was a good example.
We have several Afghan kids in the hospital right now in long term recovery. One is a 12 year old with the initials of A.M. He's a pretty happy kid and all. He's been through a lot, but things are looking up for him. A.M. should leave the hospital in a few weeks and have a full recovery. His biggest challege right now is boredom. He is constantly looking for things to do. I'll get back to A.M. in a minute.
Right around the corner from A.M.'s room are some "Enemies of Peace", aka bad guys being treated by us. They are guarded by the Army guys who captured them. It's a bit surreal to have guys with guns outside the patient rooms. Anyway, the Army guys also deal with a lot of boredom. The other day I noticed one of them reading Maxim Magazine. If you are not familiar with it, basically it is like soft core pornography with lots of pictures of scantilly clad super models. It also has all kinds of ridiculous articles trying to help guys get chicks in bed. That's basically it. Not exactly quality reading for our soldiers and perhaps not appropriate while on guard duty!
So, I decided to intervene. A copy of "The Five Love Languages" was sitting at the nurses station for some reason. I decided to pull rank here. As a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, I jokingly ordered the Army private to put down that Maxim Magazine and pick up "The Five Love Languages". The lad followed my order... so I thought.
Not long thereafter, as I was walking through the ward I noticed the aforementioned Afghan kid with the initials A.M. sitting in the hallway. He had a big grin on his face and seemed mesmorized by something. Well... HE WAS READING MAXIM MAGAZINE!
Yeah, the private followed my order only to hand over the Maxim to a 12 year old Afghan boy. Tomfoolery, I tell ya, Tomfoolery!
We have several Afghan kids in the hospital right now in long term recovery. One is a 12 year old with the initials of A.M. He's a pretty happy kid and all. He's been through a lot, but things are looking up for him. A.M. should leave the hospital in a few weeks and have a full recovery. His biggest challege right now is boredom. He is constantly looking for things to do. I'll get back to A.M. in a minute.
Right around the corner from A.M.'s room are some "Enemies of Peace", aka bad guys being treated by us. They are guarded by the Army guys who captured them. It's a bit surreal to have guys with guns outside the patient rooms. Anyway, the Army guys also deal with a lot of boredom. The other day I noticed one of them reading Maxim Magazine. If you are not familiar with it, basically it is like soft core pornography with lots of pictures of scantilly clad super models. It also has all kinds of ridiculous articles trying to help guys get chicks in bed. That's basically it. Not exactly quality reading for our soldiers and perhaps not appropriate while on guard duty!
So, I decided to intervene. A copy of "The Five Love Languages" was sitting at the nurses station for some reason. I decided to pull rank here. As a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, I jokingly ordered the Army private to put down that Maxim Magazine and pick up "The Five Love Languages". The lad followed my order... so I thought.
Not long thereafter, as I was walking through the ward I noticed the aforementioned Afghan kid with the initials A.M. sitting in the hallway. He had a big grin on his face and seemed mesmorized by something. Well... HE WAS READING MAXIM MAGAZINE!
Yeah, the private followed my order only to hand over the Maxim to a 12 year old Afghan boy. Tomfoolery, I tell ya, Tomfoolery!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Power of Prayer
There is a lot of evil in this world. All you have to do is read the paper or watch the news. The doom and gloom can be overwhelming. I do think it is important to follow current events, but we must filter that information. Otherwise, we run the risk of thinking that very little good is going on in this world. In this blog, I plan to report my experiences only. I do not want to get political in any way. I do not want to prostelytize. More than anything else, this blog is therapeutic for me. Plus, I can type out a story or my thoughts only ONE TIME instead of sending 18 emails saying the same thing!
With this in mind, I must tell you about one patient that really hit me hard. 2 nights ago the hospital was a madhouse. We were feeling the effects of what is called an "SVBID" or suicide vehicle born improvised device. In other words, a terrorist loads up a car with a bomb and drives that thing into a target. It's similar to "kamakazee" missions of previous wars.
We received 3 patients from an SVBID attack. I began to evaluate one of them in the ER. He was a First Lieutenant. He began describing the event. He was quite lucid upon arrival. A nurse gave him pain medicine ordered by me. Within what seemed like seconds, he began to "crash". He became pale and stopped talking. The evaluation continued. More help arrived. It was needed. Soon 4 physicians more experienced that me were now at the bedside doing everything possible to stabilize him. Time seemed to stand still. His leg was badly broken and bleeding. A surgeon put a large IV into his chest. He received 2 units of blood in less than 5 minutes. An emergency room doctor put a breathing tube down. I stood by trying to help in any way that I could. His leg was unwrapped revealing the badly broken lower left leg. Clearly this was the cause of his massive blood loss. The patient was taken from the ER for a fast CT Scan and then to the Operating Room. I returned to the hospital floor. It was a humbling experience to say the least. At the end of my shift the patient was out of the OR and now into the ICU. I was able to visit him there. He was stable. What a relief!
I spent much of yesterday praying. A night filled with the arrival of 5 critical patients including the first lieutenant with the badly broken leg had affected me. I prayed that my next shift would be quieter. I prayed for our patients. I prayed for peace. I arrived for work last night and my colleague gave me the report on our patients. The first lieutenant was now out of the ICU and was in a regular hospital bed. He was talking. He was eating. This is how I like my patients to be! A nurse conducted a test of his memory and cognition at the bedside as I watched. The first lieutenant was now remembering the horrors of the previous day. But, he was strong. He was determined. He was on his way to recovery. And now, he is well on his way back to his home in Utah. He will be okay. I will be okay.
With this in mind, I must tell you about one patient that really hit me hard. 2 nights ago the hospital was a madhouse. We were feeling the effects of what is called an "SVBID" or suicide vehicle born improvised device. In other words, a terrorist loads up a car with a bomb and drives that thing into a target. It's similar to "kamakazee" missions of previous wars.
We received 3 patients from an SVBID attack. I began to evaluate one of them in the ER. He was a First Lieutenant. He began describing the event. He was quite lucid upon arrival. A nurse gave him pain medicine ordered by me. Within what seemed like seconds, he began to "crash". He became pale and stopped talking. The evaluation continued. More help arrived. It was needed. Soon 4 physicians more experienced that me were now at the bedside doing everything possible to stabilize him. Time seemed to stand still. His leg was badly broken and bleeding. A surgeon put a large IV into his chest. He received 2 units of blood in less than 5 minutes. An emergency room doctor put a breathing tube down. I stood by trying to help in any way that I could. His leg was unwrapped revealing the badly broken lower left leg. Clearly this was the cause of his massive blood loss. The patient was taken from the ER for a fast CT Scan and then to the Operating Room. I returned to the hospital floor. It was a humbling experience to say the least. At the end of my shift the patient was out of the OR and now into the ICU. I was able to visit him there. He was stable. What a relief!
I spent much of yesterday praying. A night filled with the arrival of 5 critical patients including the first lieutenant with the badly broken leg had affected me. I prayed that my next shift would be quieter. I prayed for our patients. I prayed for peace. I arrived for work last night and my colleague gave me the report on our patients. The first lieutenant was now out of the ICU and was in a regular hospital bed. He was talking. He was eating. This is how I like my patients to be! A nurse conducted a test of his memory and cognition at the bedside as I watched. The first lieutenant was now remembering the horrors of the previous day. But, he was strong. He was determined. He was on his way to recovery. And now, he is well on his way back to his home in Utah. He will be okay. I will be okay.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
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".
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".
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Working Nights
Well, I have officially started working nights now. Last night was my first night on and I worked about 15 hours. We did some shifting of personnel and this is how it all ended up. It will take a little getting used to of course, but it should be fine. I am now assigned to the Intermediate Care Ward (ICW) instead of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). That's fine by me, probably a little less stress this way although I will probably be asked to handle some critical patients when we are really busy.
We were busy last night with several patients aerovaced to Bagram from various places in Afghanistan. One will not make it unfortunately. The other ones will make it to Germany for further treatment and should be okay. What I am noticing the most right now is that we are not taking care of many Americans in the hospital right now. Only about 25% of our hospital patients are Americans. I guess that is a good thing in many ways. The bad guys tend to hole up in their caves for the winter here. Thus, we see less wounded soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors (yes, we have Navy personnel on the ground here too in certain career fields). But, the violence goes on and on. It's the civilian contractors and the locals that are taking the hits right now. We even have some "Enemies of Peace" (EOP) at our facility. That's the latest designation for bad guys. It's pretty strange to treat a known or suspected terrorist. One EOP that I dealt with last night just looked like a bad guy. Treating him is that much more challenging. It's something we all have to get used to doing here.
Off to bed now than back at it tonight. At least working nights I will be able to make a few more calls home when things are slow at night and it is daytime back in the U.S. I miss the good old U.S.A.!!!
We were busy last night with several patients aerovaced to Bagram from various places in Afghanistan. One will not make it unfortunately. The other ones will make it to Germany for further treatment and should be okay. What I am noticing the most right now is that we are not taking care of many Americans in the hospital right now. Only about 25% of our hospital patients are Americans. I guess that is a good thing in many ways. The bad guys tend to hole up in their caves for the winter here. Thus, we see less wounded soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors (yes, we have Navy personnel on the ground here too in certain career fields). But, the violence goes on and on. It's the civilian contractors and the locals that are taking the hits right now. We even have some "Enemies of Peace" (EOP) at our facility. That's the latest designation for bad guys. It's pretty strange to treat a known or suspected terrorist. One EOP that I dealt with last night just looked like a bad guy. Treating him is that much more challenging. It's something we all have to get used to doing here.
Off to bed now than back at it tonight. At least working nights I will be able to make a few more calls home when things are slow at night and it is daytime back in the U.S. I miss the good old U.S.A.!!!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Deployment Life
There are a lot of things about life on deployment at Bagram that are so much different than life at home in the U.S. I guess that kind of goes without saying. Some things here are good, some not so good. Let me start with the good things. We have laundry service here. It's nice to not have to do laundry for 6 months! I'll take that. We have good food and lots of it. There are 3 cafeterias otherwise known as DFAC's (dining facilities) here within a 5 minute walk of where I live and work. As in America, food is in abundance. Since I am at a large base, we actually have a pizza place and a coffee shop here as well. Also, the United Arab Emirates has a great DFAC (there are lots of nationalities here at Bagram). I actually got to have some fabulous hummus there last week. So, I am not kidding when I say that sending food or sweets is unnecessary. We have food everywhere! One other great thing here is the workout facilities. We have 2 gyms just down the road. One is called "the clamshell" because the structure of it resembles a clam. That's where all the muscleheads work out. Basically, it's a lot of Army guys in there pumping iron in their uniforms. The other gym is called "The Rock" although I am not exactly sure why. It has more machines and cardio equipment, thus more Air Force people! There are also exercise classes there every day. Last night I went to a yoga class. Yep, that's right yoga in a combat zone! Do not knock it until you try it. I took a friend with me who had never done yoga. He was sweating like a pig in there and enjoyed the heck out of it. I came out of there feeling the best I have in a few weeks. I'll definitely be back for that, maybe to stretch out after pumping some iron with the army dudes at the clamshell!
As for the not so good stuff on deployment, I'll keep it brief. Lack of space and indoor plumbing is the main issue here. Some people live in hardened facilities that do have indoor plumbing, but they do not have much personal space there. They have to share bunk beds. I live in a B Hut where I have 6 x 7 feet of space that I can call my own. But, I have to walk 175 paces outside (I've counted it!) to get to a decent shower.
So, in the end life on deployment at a big base like Bagram is very manageable, one day at a time of course!
As for the not so good stuff on deployment, I'll keep it brief. Lack of space and indoor plumbing is the main issue here. Some people live in hardened facilities that do have indoor plumbing, but they do not have much personal space there. They have to share bunk beds. I live in a B Hut where I have 6 x 7 feet of space that I can call my own. But, I have to walk 175 paces outside (I've counted it!) to get to a decent shower.
So, in the end life on deployment at a big base like Bagram is very manageable, one day at a time of course!
Friday, January 1, 2010
IED's
The last few days I have seen directly the devastating injuries from IED's, the infamous improvised explosive devices that have become the face of this war. Two government workers, one Canadian and one American, sustained some very serious injuries from IED blasts while working in Afghanistan. It's terrible. We are doing everything we can to help them. One is well on his way home and the other patient hopefully will follow soon. It's humbling to help treat them in the ICU.
It just blows my mind that people can be so evil. It is such a cowardly act to plant a bomb. I don't think I will ever understand it. It's sickening.
I know that over the next 6 months we will see countless patients who have been injured by an IED. It's not easy taking care of these patients, but we must do it. What else can I say?
It just blows my mind that people can be so evil. It is such a cowardly act to plant a bomb. I don't think I will ever understand it. It's sickening.
I know that over the next 6 months we will see countless patients who have been injured by an IED. It's not easy taking care of these patients, but we must do it. What else can I say?
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