Courtesy Photo | (Left) Spc. Victoria Elordi, a combat medic with B Company, 448th Civil Affairs...... read more read more
Sgt. Andrew Miller
2nd Brigade Combat Team PAO
BAGHDAD -- U.S. Army medics rendered immediate aid to an east Baghdad resident who was injured by a suicide car bomb at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 6.
In the terrorist attack, a van swerved from an eastbound highway in the direction of a U.S. military convoy parked on a parallel residential street, detonating just short of the lead vehicle. The thunderous explosion sent fire and debris in every direction, blowing out windows and setting nearby palm trees aflame.
Before the dust cleared from the air, Spc. Victoria Elordi and Staff Sgt. Sean Stout, both combat medics from B Company, 448th Civil Affairs Battalion, were already at work on their first patient.
"Our first reaction was to initially check everybody on the ground, make sure all the troops were okay and get accountability," said Elordi, a Caldwell, Idaho, native. "After that, I checked on the civilians."
Although there were several people in close proximity to the explosion, only one local Iraqi woman was seriously injured. She sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs and was soon surrounded by a frantic crowd.
The medics splinted and dressed each leg but had to work around the woman, who was constantly pulling down her dress -- concerned the men on the scene would see her exposed legs, Elordi said.
"UXO in the hole!" a Soldier hollered from beyond the crowd, referring a 155-millimeter mortar round uncovered by the car bomb's blast.
The medics and some family members reacted quickly.
"We had heard that there were additional (explosives near) the blast site, so we immediately took the woman into her house," Elordi said.
Stout, of Pascagoula, Miss., remained outside to secure the area, and Elordi soon found herself in a small room, alone with the injured woman, an interpreter and a swarm of frenzied relatives and neighbors.
"Everybody was trying to take care of everything outside and get accountability of things," she said. "I had a couple of Soldiers in there with me who tried to control the crowd but, the problem is, we had two doors -- two entries -- concerned family members, children -- and everybody was concerned about the woman."
Spc. Adam Musil, a broadcast journalist with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office, was one of the two soldiers who aided Elordi in the injured woman's house.
"It was mass hysteria in that room," said Musil, from Austin, Texas. "People were screaming and crying."
Elordi administered a saline IV and, through the interpreter, assured the woman she would be alright, said Musil.
Twenty minutes later, further help and a stretcher arrived at the home. Then an ambulance siren was heard and the local woman was rushed to a hospital.
As the woman was taken away, the small room grew calm, until only the sniffling of teary-eyed relatives could be heard.
One young girl had been sobbing through the whole scene. She had only watched through the doorway, unable to help as all of this transpired. With her eyes blurry and her face red, she had something to say as the last Soldier backed out of the room -- "Shokran" -- a simple thank you.
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 08.16.2005 16:26 |
| Story ID: | 2745 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 182 |
| Downloads: | 64 |
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