Wounds of War: Medics train

By Eric Reinagel
CNHI News Service

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas September 29, 2006 10:41 am

— “This one’s dead,” shouts a military medic.
“I have two in here,” yells another.
Flickering red-and-blue bulbs and flashing strobes catch the faint images of bodies strewn about a room known as the “Embassy.”
Music from “Black Hawk Down,” the sound of a wildly singing Arabic voice and screams of horror swell in the background.
Then, lickety-split, the overhead lights go on, the room turns quiet and six members of 91 Whiskey kick back, their fingers stained with fake blood. The mock trauma exercise is over.
“Intense,” says a participant, when asked to describe the practice session at the Army’s training center for medics, many of whom will soon see live combat duty.
Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander of the Fort Sam Houston facility, said the purpose is to prepare the trainees for worse-case scenarios so they can respond quickly and effectively in a war zone.
Weightman said the medics are better prepared than in past wars to treat complex battle wounds because of the rapid-response training and innovations in military medicine.
Col. Patricia R. Hastings, medical director of the center, said they are taught how to be “mini-physician assistants,” schooled in preventive medicine, invasive skills, combat trauma and how to secure a mass death scene.
That’s a far cry, she said, from the days when most medics rose through the ranks because of their interest in medicine and didn’t receive a whole lot of professional training. Now, they go through simulated war scenario training wearing 25-pound medical packs that carry every instrument in a doctor’s bag and a few extras – like a digital machine to record blood pressure, heart rate and the amount of medicine pumping into a wounded soldier’s body.
Simulation is done with life-size mannequins who are manipulated by computer to duplicate any battlefield injury imaginable, including the spurting of blood from mangled limbs. And the blood doesn’t stop until the medic properly treats the wound.
“They (instructors) want to see how you react,” said Pfc. Heather Alwine-Frank of York, Pa. “It’s a little overwhelming.”
It is meant to be, said Hastings, because in combat, there’s no margin for error. She said medics will deal with devastating wounds on the battlefield and they can’t back off.
Weightman said the biggest problem the Army faces is recruiting enough medics to meet the military’s needs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also serve the units deployed elsewhere around the world.
This year, he said, 6,500 medics will go through training at Fort Sam Houston. He expects to increase the number to 7,000 or more next year.
There are about 125,000 American troops in Iraq. Since the U.S. invasion in March of 2003, more than 19,500 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in action there.
Because of the training that goes on at Fort Sam Houston and elsewhere, more than half the wounded troops were able to return to combat duty after treatment in the war zone, according to Pentagon figures.
“We get good training,” said Erin Copland of Buffalo, N.Y., a member of 91 Whiskey. “That’s what makes us crucial to the survival rate.”

Eric Reinagel is a CNHI News Service Elite Reporting Fellowship recipient. He writes for The Meadville, Pa., Tribune.

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