Photo By Sgt. Whitney N. Frasier | A cadaver was used to educate corpsmen at the Navy Trauma Training Center, April 21....... read more read more
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LOS ANGELES - "It is not a matter of when ... not if ... you will see someone bleed their life onto the ground ... people will die," said Lt. Cmdr. David M. Dromsky, the orthopedic surgeon instructor, Navy Trauma Training Center.
Since there is not one Naval hospital equipped for level one trauma, Sailors travel to Los Angeles to prepare themselves for the extremes associated with combat trauma. With the hospital receiving thousands of trauma patients per day, the center becomes the battlefield training ground for corpsmen.
"We bring them here to see a lot of blood on the floor ... and if they don't do something very quickly [the patient] is going to die," said Dromsky, 40, Augusta, Ga.
Instructors at the Navy Trauma Training Center strive to give corpsmen the best possible trauma training before deploying. Every year, 11 classes process through the three week course, with approximately 21 students per class.
Trauma is the leading cause of death for people under the age of 40. The estimated annual cost of medical care of trauma victims exceeds 200 billion dollars. The NTTC instructors combine with students to bring over five million dollars in free trauma services to the residents of Los Angeles every year.
"This is a very rewarding job," said Cmdr. Trish C. Martin, emergency room trauma nurse, NTTC. "Seeing the rotators' transformation from the time they get here to the time they leave, it's incredible."
Each instructor is dually employed. When they aren't teaching students, or rotators, trauma medicine, they work as staff for the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center.
Every instructor has his own lecture method in a classroom setting, but on the job training is the most important part of the course. The staff brings a different team into what they call "clinicals" six days a week.
First, it's into the emergency room and usually into the late hours of the evening. The instructors have the opportunity to teach the students with real-life scenarios right as they come through the door. Disorder and madness is what's in store for the untrained eye.
"To an inexperienced corpsman, this could look intimidating," said Martin, 48, Queens N.Y. "Once they see that each person has a role and realize how organized it really is, they begin to function more efficiently."
Efficiency is vital in a combat zone and the instructors understand that. To get accustomed to the battlefield sense of urgency, each team goes from classroom to practical application time and time again before graduating the course.
The rotators may once again see the same patient they previously treated in emergency room, except this time (they) may be in the Operating Room, depending on the injury.
"We provide the non-surgical technologists with the techniques they will need to know to get the room running," said Cmdr. Ave-Maria Reed, Operating Room trauma instructor. "To me, body alignment is the most important thing they learn in this area, since improper patient care can cause permanent nerve damage," said Reed, 54, Tuskegee, Ala.
The idea is intuition through repetition; knowing what instrument comes next, or what the instructor wants without saying it, is as significant as the operation itself.
Timeliness is the key in every trauma situation. Currently, they are forming a program designed specifically for inexperienced non-surgical techs to provide them with the experience they need to be successful in the medical field.
One injury that is not unfamiliar to combat patients is burns. Hundreds of Marines have suffered from burns since the war began in 2001. Finally, an instructor goes in-depth with life situations from the Burn Unit with the Navy's very own corpsmen, giving them the training they need to treat a member with severe skin damage.
"The trauma the corpsmen see here is as close to the battlefield as we can get our healthcare providers before seeing it in combat," said Lt. Cmdr. Christopher M. Jack, 37, Clearwater, Kan., a critical care nurse specialist and Burn Unit instructor, Navy Trauma Training Center.
To eliminate the deer-in-the-headlight effect, they continuously expose the rotators to trauma of all types, mild and severe.
"I remember the looks on the faces of the rotators when we got our first deaths of this course," said Cmdr. Donald J. Green, trauma surgeon and deputy director. "It's a shock to the system. They need to be able to manage high energy trauma with an experienced person over their shoulder first. We are here to flatten the learning curve," said Green, 40, Glendive, Mon.
A cadaver lab, or fresh tissue training, has recently been incorporated into the curriculum. This program is normally a very expensive procedure in which medical students participate. With this segment, the staff instructs rotators about applied anatomy, presenting them with a rare opportunity to experience more than a text book aspect of the inside of a human body.
As the war on terror has evolved, the enemy and friendly forces become more efficient killers, which means the corpsmen must become more proficient at treating and fixing casualties.
"The cadaver lab helps doctors, nurses and corpsmen get used to vital medical techniques using a real body," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Norman V. Reyes, a surgical instructor. "It allows them to insert a chest tube, apply minor suturing, learn airway management and other emergency techniques crucial to injured service members in combat," said Reyes, 36, Bronx, N.Y.
NTTC has received many awards since the start of the center in 2002 commending them for their prompt, efficient care and their dedication to duty. Each of the 11 instructors continues to provide corpsmen with the knowledge to successfully treat service members in combat.
The survival rate of an injured member in combat can only get better with an experienced corpsman by their side. Medical readiness is one mission of a corpsman, saving a life of a fallen member is another.
"When we save a life as a team, it's just so worth it," said Cmdr. Michael J. Harrison, the anesthesiology instructor. "But that's only the beginning, we feel responsible for them there forward, especially if it's a Marine," said Harrison, 51, Albuquerque, N.M.
| Date Taken: | 04.28.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 04.28.2009 18:46 |
| Story ID: | 32987 |
| Location: | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,029 |
| Downloads: | 260 |
This work, Navy Trauma Training Center: where training saves lives, by Sgt Whitney N. Frasier, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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