Intense Training For Military Surgeons

CBS Evening News: Before Sending Them Off To War, The U.S. Puts Its Trauma Surgeons Through The Paces In Baltimore

(CBS)  Veterans of all U.S. wars will be honored on Tuesday as America celebrates Veterans' Day, and with two wars still underway, military doctors are improving their ability to care for wounded veterans.

CBS Evening News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who suffered traumatic injuries covering the war in Iraq, reports on a special training program for military trauma surgeons.

On the battlefield in Iraq, saving wounded soldiers takes technology, training, and speed.

Those rescue methods are perfected here on the home front, in Baltimore, Md. From car crashes, to drug turf battles, this is America's war zone at home.

The military sends young surgeons like Dr. Lori Caloia here to the Shock Trauma Center - before sending them to Iraq.

"It just basically gets us into the mindset of how you're supposed to think," Caloia says. "How a trauma surgeon thinks."

Here, they learn to race against the clock, Dozier reports. They've got what's called a "golden hour" to save the patient - it's a clock that starts ticking the moment the patient is hurt. After that hour, shock sets in, and the body starts shutting down - the major organs failing.

"This is essentially trauma boot camp for young military surgeons and a master class for those who have already been in the field," reports Dozier. "About half the doctors who operated on me from Baghdad to Bethesda, did a stint here in Baltimore."

Dr. Jeff Johnson served as the chief trauma surgeon in Balad when I passed through there, Dozier says. He performed more than 560 surgeries in a single year.

"The level of violence that is leveled at mankind in a war, you can't prepare for that," Johnson says.

He keeps up the same pace here - Shock Trauma gets about 30 patients a day.

In her three weeks here, Dr. Caloia's team will end up treating 150 patients - she will be personally responsible for thirty of them.

The pace matches a combat hospital - but that's still different than seeing your fellow troops injured, and in need.

"I think the hardest thing is actually seeing those soldiers in uniform coming through the doors," Caloia says. "And knowing it's up to you to keep your cool, and fight to get them home, using everything you've learned in a place like this."

[armycptiraq]

I just spent a week in Balad, Iraq where there is a military hospital that is incredible. The surgeons and other healthcare providers are tip top. I was able to assist them minimally in surgeries and was utterly impressed at the work they are able to do on a daily basis. So much trauma passes through their "Hero''s Highway" entrance (where the medevac helicopter lands and the patients are wheeled in through the ER). The majority of the serious trauma they receive now is Iraqis, but still may GIs come through after encountering a roadside bomb or other mechanism of this war. These surgeons work tirelessly through the night in marathon surgeries to save lives and they deserve much recognition.
As for compensation, I do not think they could be paid enough for the work they do. The impression I got was that of a duty to serve those patients who need care and not worry about a paycheck. There is no overtime here in Iraq; you work until you fly home and then it is the next surgeon''s job and he/she does the same.
At all the combat support hospitals in Iraq you will find selfless military health care providers (medics, nurses, NP, PA, physicians, surgeons, etc) working long days, but enjoying what they do. They are worthy of highest regard.

[wl7bzh]

THESE AND OTHER DOCTORS ALREADY HAVE THEIR WEALTH "SPREAD AROUND" BY NOT RECEIVING THE COMPENSATION THEY DESERVE FOR THE WORKING CONDITIONS THEY ENDURE AND THE HEROIC WORK THEY DO...IN FACT MIRACULOUS WORK!

Posted by KristianInAL at 07:54 AM : Nov 10, 2008

Say.. you wouldn''t be a physician or the spouse of a physician? ; )