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November 17, 2005

Frontline trauma care

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More bad news for the anti—war, moonbat left: the survival rate for US service members wounded in action in Iraq has reached 90 percent, which surpasses the rate in all previous wars, and is ten points higher than in First Gulf War.  Maj. Gen. (Dr.) George W. Weightman, Commanding General of the Army Medical Department's Center and School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas discussed medical lessons learned in an article in today's edition of the Stars and Stripes.

There are several reasons for the higher survival rate including better body armor, forward—deployed surgical teams, and a top—notch medical evacuation system.  But the critical factor according to Weightman has been the training and high level of performance of unit medics and combat lifesavers in treating our wounded.

Currently, the three main threats to body—armored soldiers who receive traumatic wounds are blood loss from damaged limbs, sucking chest wounds and obstructed airways.  Lessons learned from battlefield trauma care resulted in a complete reversal of blood loss treatment protocols. The standard doctrine called for medics to stop the hemorrhaging by first trying four or five different techniques before resorting to a tourniquet.  Old school thinking was that a tourniquet would certainly stop the bleeding, but that would also eventually result in amputation of the affected limb.

'As a result,' Weightman said, 'we lost many patients because they bleed to death.'  More recent experiences and studies show tourniquets don't cause as much harm as was believed. 'Conversely, it really saves a lot of lives.'

Weightman noted that because of improved body armor, six percent of our wounded in Iraq have lost a limb, which is double the amputation rate of past wars.  The body armor saves lives that in other wars would have resulted in a fatality.  But another statistic not mentioned in the article is also stunning: 53 percent of the total of 15,704 wounded return to duty within 72 hours.  This is a testament to our superior technology, the best battlefield medical care in the world, and most importantly, the training and courage of our service men and women.

Doug Hanson   11—17—05