From MNF-I, 'Battlefield docs' hone skills in Iraq. As a recovering ER nurse, I must say this is fascinating stuff.
BALAD AIR BASE — More than 40 "battlefield docs" - surgeons and physician assistants from around Iraq - converged at Air Force Theater Hospital May 21 here to hone their already razor-sharp surgical skills at the Tri-Service Extremity War Surgery Symposium. . . .
Survival rates for U.S. patients here have reached 98 percent -- unheard of in past wars -- and surgical procedures here rival any performed in trauma centers stateside.
"One of the ways we've been able to achieve that 98 percent survival rate was defining and perfecting a standardization of care that prevents, or at least reduces, unwarranted practice variations," said Col. Brian Masterson, the [Balad Air Base] hospital's commander. . . .With the current generation of body armor and all its enhancements to better protect troops, the highest percentage of combat wounds in this war are to troops' extremities," said Lt. Col. Raymond Fang, the co-director of the intensive care unit at the AFTH. He deployed from the 435th Medical Squadron at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. . . .
I spared you the gory details that medical people eat bloody steak dinners discussing.
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