McChord, Madigan medics aid wounded at Balad

  • Published
  • By Dave Kellogg
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  To say the staff at Balad’s Air Force Theater Hospital has seen everything may be an understatement. 

The doctors, nurses and medics here, some from McChord Air Force Base and Madigan Army Medical Center in the state of Washington, save the lives of servicemembers who are wounded while supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

From injured Soldiers rushed in by helicopter to wounded insurgents, the patients they see run the gamut. The patients are Iraqi police, military, civilians and insurgents, in-country nationals, coalition civilians and military, American civilians and, of course, American servicemembers.

“We see just about every U.S. wounded before they come out of country,” said Col. Don Taylor, Air Force Theater Hospital commander.

No one stays at the hospital long. The hospital is meant to stabilize a patient, treat any immediate threats and send him or her away for further treatment and recovery as quickly as possible.

Servicemembers who can recover within two weeks are sent to other bases in the Middle East. For longer recoveries, they go to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany.

“Nowhere in the world do you get the level of injuries that we see here,” Colonel Taylor said. 
 
Balad’s hospital is the epicenter for the wounded in Iraq. Rather than take in wounded, provide emergency care and then help them recover, this hospital only does the first two before they are evacuated. 

It’s called “through-push” and it works. Ninety-six percent of the wounded who make it to the hospital’s front door survive, officials said. 

Balad’s hospital is a series of canvas tents between 10-foot-high concrete barriers. The hospital has no running water, so the scrub sinks rely on internal water tanks. About 380 staff members work at the hospital. The Air Force provides the majority of the doctors, nurses and medics. The Army fills in a few of the positions. 

“Back in the states healthcare is usually a place. Here it’s a process,” Colonel Taylor said. 

Trauma patients suffer from roadside bomb blasts, gunshot wounds, broken bones, burns and head injuries. However, only about 30 percent of injured servicemembers who come through Balad’s hospital suffer combat wounds. Many other patients have sports-related injuries. 

Another type of patient the hospital wasn’t prepared for was older patients with bad hearts. 

Companies import people from all over the world to work in Iraq, many who are medically retired from the military, Colonel Taylor said. The variety of traumas keeps the staff on their toes. 

Capt. Brett Cavanaugh, a 47th Combat Support Hospital nurse from Madigan, said the stress in the hospital waxes and wanes. 

“If there’s one rule in theater, it’s that you don’t want to be busy, because that means Soldiers are getting hurt,” he said. 

But all too often the wounded start coming and it seems they will never stop. Those are the hardest, and longest, days. 

“Sometimes days can be the day into the night, into the next day,” said Madigan neurosurgeon Maj. (Dr.) Brett Schlifka. 

Most at the hospital agree one of the most emotional and trying times is when they must treat a servicemember and an insurgent right next to each other. 

If wounded insurgents make it to Balad’s hospital they receive the same state-of-the-art treatment as everyone else, Dr. Schlifka said. 

Being denied closure regarding the outcome of a patient is another tough aspect of working at Balad. 

“We don’t get feedback from our patients,” Colonel Taylor said. “It would be useful, possibly on the clinical level, but it would be very useful emotionally.” 

The one time they did see the result of their work was when they treated Bob Woodruff, the ABC news anchor who was critically wounded in Iraq. When Mr. Woodruff later made a statement about his status, it was a rare glimpse of what Balad’s Air Force Theater Hospital accomplishes every day, Colonel Taylor said. 

“Most (servicemembers) don’t know they were even in this place,” he said.