Team Effort Saves Lives of Local Afghans After IED Blast

AFGHANISTAN

08.02.2010

Story by Sgt. Dorian Gardner 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

✔ ✗ Subscribe

132

CAMP DELARAM II, Afghanistan – After the initial call reported one man with lacerations to his leg, a laceration turned out to be an amputation and one patient grew to nine.

While driving down a commonly used route in Delaram, a commercial bus was struck by an improvised explosive device in the early morning of July 28, with nearly 60 passengers onboard. During a route clearance mission, Gunnery Sgt. Robert D. Ogle, the platoon sergeant for 2nd Route Clearance Platoon, 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, took a detachment of his convoy to ensure the safety of the passengers and driver of the bus.

After a brief encounter with the assistant driver of the bus, the Marines assessed the site and swept for secondary IEDs.

“All the passengers were moved to a building about 500-800 meters from the IED site,” said Ogle.

The Marines and soldiers on site offered to provide aid and water for the victims of the IED strike. Marines continued their mission after the victims of the bomb had been moved to a clinic within the city of Delaram.

Victims of the IED strike were taken to a medical clinic by Afghan civilians. Those who suffered injuries beyond their clinic’s medical capabilities were moved to Camp Delaram II by Afghan Uniformed Police.

At 8 a.m., Regimental Combat Team 2’s Shock Trauma Platoon received word from sentries at the entry control point that there was a man present with a large laceration on his left leg and was in need of medical aid.

With a large number of victims and a variety of injuries, the Afghan National Army’s aid station partnered with Shock Trauma Platoon and Regimental Aid Station to assist in providing aid to injured civilians.

As injured Afghans were brought in by the Afghan National Army, they were immediately brought to the ANA compound where medics and corpsmen were standing by. As injured individuals were filtered through, the ANA’s Brigade Aid Station assessed the patients, provided bandages for wounds and addressed minor hemorrhaging for multiple IED victims. Those in need of immediate surgical attention were transported to the Shock Trauma Platoon, while others with less severe injuries were treated on site.

Operating daily on a port/starboard rotation, a sailor is present at the Shock Trauma Platoon tent 24 hours of the day. When they received the call alerting them to an inbound patient, Shock Trauma assembled a team. Prepared to handle a “laceration,” corpsman and officers were caught off guard when the victim’s leg was nearly amputated by the explosion.

“The guy showed up with his leg hanging off,” said Lt. Jessica Kazer, an Intensive Care Unit Nurse with the STP, and Boulder, Colo., native.

“It’s a shock to see, but it doesn’t stop us from moving,” said Kazer. “We still do our job. As soon as he came in, I put two IV’s in him and we started a blood transfusion.”

Due to his massive loss of blood, the victim’s vital signs were weak and he was in dire need of a blood transfusion.

“The doc told me activate the ‘walking blood bank,’” said Petty Officer 1st Class Genaro Beltran, a laboratory technician from San Diego.

As soon as they were able to identify the victim’s blood type, Beltran sent an email to the unit leaders throughout the base requesting donors with that blood type to support the patient. Marines and sailors rushed to donate blood, not concerned as to whether the patient was American or Afghan.

After ample blood was received, surgeons continued to operate while the rest of the staff helped place IVs in new patients, diagnose injuries and assess patients as time progressed. While this victim was undergoing operations, seven more victims of the IED strike were brought to the STP tent.

That evening, three victims of the IED strike were evacuated via British air assets to a larger medical facility, for further medical attention. The STP continued to care for the remaining patients and ensured they received the necessary medical attention.

“I like being there for my patients at their time of crisis,” said Kazer, who is currently on her first deployment. “That’s why I work in the [Intensive Care Unit]. We get the sickest of the sick.”

Excited to finally be able to support the war effort, Kazer said she would not get out of the military until she deployed at least one time.

Though the patients who came across the platoon’s tables were not Marines, sailors, soldiers, or airmen, STP sailors did not hesitate to act and saw nothing more than a patient in need of care.
At the end of the day, all overnight patients were transported back to the ANA BAS where follow on care was provided. By the morning, all were safely dispatched to the city.

Today’s combined actions by the ANA BAS and Shock Trauma Platoon show that Afghan civilians in need of urgent medical care will not be turned away by this Afghan-American team.

“If you come across our table, our guys are going to treat you,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Jones.

We are truly partnered in this fight.