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Healing the Wounded

Updated: 12:38 p.m. CT Jan 26, 2007

Healing the Wounded

The military has rewritten the book on wartime surgery to combat the wave of injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Web exclusive
By Sarah Childress
Newsweek

Jan. 26, 2007 - Medicine has always advanced on the battlefield; it was Hippocrates who said that ?war is the only proper school for surgeons." But the unprecedented scope of injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan has led the military's medical corps literally to rewrite the book on war surgery. At least 24,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded since the Iraq war began, and another thousand in Afghanistan. With 20,000 more soldiers en route to the battlefield in Iraq, top military surgeons gathered this week in D.C. to discuss new strategies and technologies to help wounded warriors....Article continues at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16828168/site/newsweek/

[EmergencyNet Editors note: We believe that this is an important article that points to patient care that can have future ramifications for civilian emergency service agencies, as well as better serving the men and women of our military services as they now go "in harms way." The use of coagulation agents and advances in surgical treatment will probably be refined and filter down to aid in the medical care of people in your hometown some time in the future. As was the case during the Viet Nam war, and as noted by Hippocrates above, many advances in trauma care usually occur during conflicts. In fact, many attribute the current U.S. EMT/Paramedic programs, in place in most localities, to an evolution of what combat medics did in Viet Nam.

While we recommend this article for the general public to gain a better understanding of combat trauma care, we must take umbrage with some of the facts near the end of the article. The author, Ms. Childress, is apparently mistaken in regard to the identity of Michael Mazurek. As any combat Marine can attest, there is no such thing as a "Marine orthopedic surgeon." All medics (corpsman) and doctors serving members of the U.S.M.C. are proud members of the U.S. Navy, though they may be attached to Marine corp units for duty. As is the case all too often, most members of the popular press have not served in our nation's military and therefore are not familiar with the intricacies of how our armed services really operate.