Combat nurses: Saving lives, serving the wounded

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. D. Clare
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Editor's note: This is the first installment of a six part series by Tech. Sgt. D. Clare titled "Combat Nurses." In the series Sergeant Clare takes an in-depth and personal look at how nurses from different specialties are caring for the war wounded at one of the busiest trauma centers in the world.

It's 4 a.m. and Capt. Shelly Garceau, an emergency room nurse, is finally taking a breather.

Moments earlier, she'd dropped two Marines off in the intensive care unit of the Air Force Theater Hospital here. They'd suffered partial thickness burns over their faces and hands as a result of an explosion.

Captain Garceau consoles herself knowing she did everything she could for the men. 

"That guy couldn't even see me. He wouldn't be able to show you who I am if he saw me," she said. "But he'd recognize my voice. And when he said thank you to me, it was like nothing else." 

The hospital here is one of  the busiest trauma hospitals in the world and is the only facility that provides a full spectrum of medical services in Iraq, said hospital officials. 

The emergency room takes in 23 patients a day on average, 11 of which are trauma cases. In that same 24-hour cycle, the facility's operating room typically handles more than a dozen cases, performing more than 60 procedures. In the past year, nurses were behind the treatment of more than 10,000 injuries.

In a four month period, the facility's statistics match or exceed activities at stateside trauma centers, said Col. Norman Forbes, the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group chief nurse.

Behind every case and helping every patient are the nurses of the 332nd EMDG. From the moment a wounded troop lands at the hospital to the time he or she lands in Germany or is medically evacuated to the U.S., a combat nurse is there to assist physicians, administer medication and care for the wounded.

The hospital boasts a 98 percent survivability rate for the wounded who arrive here. The success of the medical team here is known among the servicemembers who fight in Iraq, Captain Garceau said. 

On a past deployment to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, she received patients who had been treated at the hospital.

"The troops would tell us that they were really scared until they got to Balad Air Base because they knew if they made it this far, they'd be alright. That's the reason why I came here. I wanted to be a part of that," she says.

Beyond the prolific number of patients treated at the facility, nurses say combat trauma creates challenges for care providers who may be treating several different types of injuries simultaneously.

"We're dealing with high-ballistic, penetrating trauma. It's not the same sort of thing that you see on the streets of Detroit or Chicago or Baltimore. It's in a league of its own," Colonel Forbes said. "Most of the trauma you see in the states is blunt trauma from steering wheels and auto accidents. You get gang shootings and occasional single point entry gunshot wounds. You don't tend to see the multi-systems trauma that you see during wartime with the blast injuries." 

Despite the hospital's location in the center of the war zone, nurses say they are able to offer care that meets and often exceeds the level of trauma treatment available elsewhere throughout the world. The nurses aren't encumbered by health insurance limitations or concerned with co-pays. Their sole focus is on saving lives.

"Our patients get the top notch care here. It doesn't matter how many supplies you use on a patient or how many times they come back to surgery. The cost is nothing," says Lt. Col. Jan With, the flight commander of operating room nurses.

"Military medicine is further ahead than civilian medicine. I've even heard my counterparts in my civilian life say that," the colonel said, a member of the Air Force Reserve Command who is deployed from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. In her civilian life, she is a coordinator for more than 20 specialty clinics in Norfolk, Neb.

"The military is able to get the technology quicker," she said.

Beyond technology, the nurses learn to work fast and make critical decisions. Every day, lives are on the line, and they provide the critical link to the care patients need. They work seamlessly with doctors and technicians and quickly develop the synergy needed to keep war's wounded alive.

Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

Click here to view the comments/letters page