Photo By Cpl. Katherine Keleher | Service members practice applying splints to one another during a combat lifesaver...... read more read more
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CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – When it comes to field medical treatment, the Marine Corps relies on its Navy corpsman counterparts. However, during the last decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, both the Corps and Navy have come to realize more troops than just the corpsman need medical training.
To help meet this need, service members outside the medical field are now able to take the combat lifesaver course, such as the one held at Camp Leatherneck, Helmand province, Aug. 8-10.
During the course, three soldiers, one sailor, one airman and five Marines learned medical techniques ranging from how to check blood pressure using pulse points and applying tourniquets to administering morphine.
The intent behind CLS certification is to augment the existing medical knowledge of small unit-based corpsmen and medics. While every Marine receives basic first aid training, CLS provides the know-how to respond to more typical battlefield situations, local to southern Afghanistan, should the corpsman be unavailable or even a casualty.
“The three main battlefield injuries that we cover are treatment of life threatening hemorrhage from extremity wounds, airway compromise and tension pneumothorax,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Brent Romines, a corpsman working at the Regional Command Southwest combat operations center patient evacuation coordination center, and a native of Sacramento, Calif. “A lot of injuries we see today from IED blasts are amputations. Many times it’s multiple limbs. So, if a Marine is the first one there they can start putting on tourniquets on each limb. It cuts down on time… and can save that guys life.”
The corpsmen in charge of the course taught the techniques using a mixture of lessons and lectures followed by practical examination.
They had students perform practical application on the lifesaving procedures taught, and gave written tests to ensure students retained the information before graduation. If students did not pass both the written test and practical examination, then they did receive their certification.
“Everybody needs to be heavily involved in this class,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas McLean, one of the course’s instructors.
Though the main goal of CLS training is to teach troops more advanced ways of treating casualties when the corpsman cannot perform immediate aid, the corpsmen also know this is not a perfect world.
“What if the corpsman got hit,” McLean asked during one of the classes. “What would you do then?”
There is a real chance that the corpsman or medic who is supposed to save lives in the battlefield may need to be saved themselves, Romines added.
“It makes me very comfortable knowing that if I go down, I’ll have a fellow Marine there to help me out and save my life,” he continued.
Corpsmen aboard Camp Leatherneck plan to host more CLS Courses in the coming months.
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 08.17.2011 01:17 |
| Story ID: | 75456 |
| Location: | CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF |
| Web Views: | 127 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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