Story by Spc. Rick Rzepka
Scimitar Assistant Editor
MOSUL, Iraq - "Bring me only beautiful, useless things," said Carl Sandburg in his poem murmurings of a field hospital.
The line comes from an injured Soldier in a field hospital who, wilted from the exhausting path of war, seeks to find peace as he prepares to return home.
The combat support hospital is one of the last places Soldiers want to find themselves while running the gauntlet of war here. But for many Soldiers and civilians, the CSH offers a sliver of the flipside to the brutality of human nature. It is a place dedicated to the alleviation of true pain and the commitment to humanity.
'I knew I had been shot'
Sgt. Walter R. Davis, 2nd of the 1st Infantry Battalion, 172nd Stryker Brigade, was promoted to the rank of sergeant in early January, just a few weeks before he was shot in the arm by a sniper.
Davis, who hails from Hattiesburg, Miss., was put in charge of a rifle squad who often find themselves on the front lines in the battle against insurgents in Mosul. Sgt. Davis, a natural leader according to his fellow Soldiers, knew the responsibility that came with the stripes he had just earned - and the inherent dangers of the profession he chose.
The men of the 172nd Stryker brigade had already shed blood. A few months earlier, on Nov. 19, Davis' unit, Charlie Company, was involved in a firefight with insurgents that left them with 11 wounded and one killed in action.
"When something like that happens, it really hits home," said Davis. "I've never been closer to a group of guys in my life."
On a cool morning in late January, Davis and his men were conducting business as usual in the dense urban jungle of Mosul, a rat's nest of insurgent activity since the war began.
"It was like any other day really," said Davis of Jan. 24. "We had a three-hour patrol in the morning, came in for chow and rolled back out at noon," he said.
On their second mission of the day, Davis and the other Soldiers from Charlie Company provided security in a heavily populated area of the city as a tactical psychological operations team was distributing flyers and pamphlets to the locals.
Davis and his fire-team took responsibility for the southwest section of the four-corner perimeter around a mosque to safeguard both the PSYOPS team and the people inside.
"He was doing the right thing," said 1st Lt. Joe Vanty, Davis' team leader. "He knew his job well."
Davis watched as his team dismounted from the Stryker to set up security. As his teammates scanned their sectors for threats, Davis moved from man to man for the better part of an hour to provide guidance and support.
"I went to go check on my SAW (squad automatic weapon) gunner, and as soon as I stepped off the curb onto the street is when I got shot," said Davis. "I actually heard my bone snap."
"The second I heard the shot, I saw him hit the ground," said Vanty, who initially thought the body armor Davis was wearing absorbed the 7.62 mm round. Davis stumbled for cover behind the Stryker and fell over.
"I knew I had been shot," said Davis. As he lay in the street, Davis said he immediately thought of his family back home.
After Davis fell to the ground, Pfc. Jeffrey 'Doc' Stewart rushed over and provided the initial treatment for the wound. "He (Davis) was only down for three to four minutes before Pfc. Stewart was there with the stretcher," said Vanty.
"I packed the wound and threw a tourniquet on because I couldn't see the exit wound," said Stewart who was worried about hemorrhaging. 'Doc' Stewart also determined that the bullet had not hit an artery because of the light color of the blood.
After making sure Davis could breathe without problems, Stewart helped a nauseous and bewildered Davis into a Stryker vehicle. "I thought I was going to throw up, but I didn't," said Davis.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Anthens, Company C's senior medic, cut Davis' cumbersome gear away and determined that the wound was a 'through and through' gunshot wound, meaning that the round had gone straight through Davis' bicep. His fellow Soldiers made him as comfortable as possible and took him to the 47th Combat Support Hospital, a short ride away, said Anthens.
From point of injury to his arrival at the CSH, Charlie Company's Soldiers delivered their wounded comrade into the hands of the 47th in less than 15 minutes.
"The Stryker parted traffic like the Red Sea," said Vanty.
Dedicated to life
On the modern battlefield, military medical professionals are not only trained in their respective specialties, they must also master basic soldiering skills because of their close proximity to the fight.
A medic takes on job of the Soldiers around him, whether he is with the infantry, military police, or explosive ordnance disposal team.
"We live as infantry," said Spc. Joshua Cresswell, of 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. "We do everything they do. We're just one of the guys until someone gets hurt."
Along with ammo and gear, the medics also lug trach tubes, IVs, tourniquets and medicine. Everything they need to save a life.
When someone does go down, Cresswell said the first step is to assess the injury.
"We try to figure out were he is bleeding," he said. He checks the entire body, often cutting off the Soldier's protective vest. Blood is one of the few things a medic can't replace on the ground, so stopping the flow is vital.
Medics then move on to the airway, stabilizing the breathing through CPR or breathing tubes if needed. When more than one Soldier is injured, fellow infantrymen trained in first aid lend a hand, but it is the medic who is running the show. "Once one is stabilized, I move on to the next one."
For Cresswell, stationed at Camp Prosperity, the nearest CSH is the 10th CSH in central Baghdad. The crowded streets sometimes make evacuating a patient by vehicle impossible. Instead he calls on air support. With the helicopter medivac procedure memorized, he shouts it out line by line to a radioman while still treating the casualties.
There is nothing more important than getting the Soldiers out of the field and into equipment-rich environment of a hospital.
The same holds true in Mosul.
"The biggest benefit is the rapid evacuation of the casualty," said Lt. Col. David Misner, emergency room chief at the 47th CSH. There are some disadvantages of being so close however, he said. "The care is excellent for trauma, but it's a dirty environment and we live from boom to boom here."
The 47th CSH, only 200 meters from the city of Mosul, is a frequent target of insurgent mortars and rockets.
"Luckily they're terrible shots," said Capt. Christopher Washack, company commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company.
Hearing the call come over the radio that a wounded American Soldier was inbound to the hospital, the Soldiers of the 47th Combat Hospital went into intense preparation to receive their brother-in-arms.
"When these guys come in, we're ready in droves," said Misner.
While the 47th CSH, which provides comprehensive medical care for the northern sector of Iraq, sees a variety of patients ranging from local nationals to insurgents, they are especially focused when an American Soldier is injured, said Washack.
As the Stryker vehicle carrying Davis came barreling into the hospital's emergency service lane, Soldiers were ready to quickly transfer him into the trauma bay, where three medics, an anesthesiologist and a trauma team leader quickly assessed Davis' wound and relieved his fierce pain.
Davis' condition was determined to be stable by Misner. From a trauma standpoint, the wound was very straight forward, he said. There are three main wires that run through the arm, and Davis' all remained functional. "He is lucky he hasn't lost nerve function in his arm," said Misner, who expects that Davis will return to duty after he undergoes months of rigorous physical therapy to rebuild the muscle in his bicep.
One-third of Davis' bicep muscle was decimated by the 7.62 mm round, said Col. Randall Espinosa, who commands the 274th forward surgical team out of Fort Bragg.
Davis' injury could have been limb threatening, so he was quickly rushed into the operating room where Espinosa operated on the Soldier's damaged arm.
"He had a diminished pulse, but his biggest problem was the humerus fracture," said Espinosa. In the OR, Espinosa cleansed Davis' wound and repaired the shattered bone with fixiter pins.
In past conflicts Davis may have lost his arm, but because of the advanced technology, better response time and more highly trained personnel, injured Soldiers have an increased chance of returning to duty and living normal lives, said Espinosa.
A CSH in Iraq is comparable to a state-side emergency room. With some of the best-trained and experienced trauma surgeons and staffs in the world, Doctors and nurses have all the equipment they need to save a patient's lives.
"About 94 percent of the trauma patients that make it to the CSH survive," according to Col. Dennis Doyle, commander of the 10th CSH in Baghdad. "One reason is because the medics in the field and the medivac pilots get them to us so quickly. Another is we have some talented senior folks."
The hospital receives about 600 patients a month, said Doyle. While they're they are not all severe cases, it is still more than enough to season a staff.
Fortunately, their work flow has decreased steadily over the past few months.
"I'm convinced that we've had more basketball injuries than the ones the insurgents have inflicted," said Espinosa on the diminished number of Coalition patients at the hospital in recent months.
About one quarter of the 47th CSH's patients are Coalition troops, with the rest being local nationals, Iraqi Security Forces and insurgents, adding a humanitarian element to the hospital's overall mission.
Shortly after Davis was awarded the Purple Heart by Brig. Gen. Rickey Rife, 101st Airborne, he was on a C-130 headed to Lundstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he will transition back to the United States to recouperate from his wound.
"I'll tell you, a lot of people tell me that they're sorry for me. I'm not sorry," said Davis.
"I'm glad it was me rather than my fire team."
| Date Taken: | 02.23.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 02.23.2006 09:59 |
| Story ID: | 5474 |
| Location: | MOSUL, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,023 |
| Downloads: | 597 |
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