I'm actually glad to be back in NC. The weather in Texas was just killer! We had temps in the 90s with humidity peaking over 90%. OVER 90%! NC isn't that bad after all.
Let's not even get into the mosquitos. Those mosquitos that create quarter sized "love bites" on any exposed skin. Yes, let's not go there.
C4 was a great experience for me. What an opportunity to meet medical service personnel from other branches: Navy, Air Force; along with the Army personnel. We shared stories of our experiences with our patients, stories of our duty stations, and where we want to go next. One of the Navy nurses told me about her experience taking take of the Haitians after the earthquake earlier this year. An Army physician told me about his experience being an infantry medical physician. A Chilean physician told me about life in his country. What a wide range of experiences we had at C4! I feel gained the most learning just from talking with people.
Here's a recap of my week:
Day 1 - Flight, Orientation
Day 2-4 - Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) certification class (TNCC and ATLS for doctors was also available)
Day 5-7 - Lectures, Field training
Day 8 - Graduation, return flight home
Day 2-4 (PHTLS)
This is a civilian based class with an emphasis in military medicine about medical care from the point of injury (POI) to the ED. All the scenarios were civilian based: car crashes, falls, electrical shocks, burns, etc. The bottom line up front from this class was when arriving at the scene do you: "stay and play" or "pack in go." There are some treatments that can be done on scene, but for more critical pts the best thing would be to package the pt to the nearest trauma center for a more critical immediate intervention: surgery.
Hello Camp Bullis!
My cot
Peaceful night
The recent tropical storm blew all these down. We stayed in the huts above.
At PHTLS class
Day 5-7
Our lectures consisted of to CBRNE, introduction to EFPs (explosively formed penetrator, which have been found to be the cause of wounded soldiers, not IEDs), levels of care, and provider resiliency.
Our first day in the field consisted of round-robin training of various litter carries, familiarization to levels of MOPP, putting on CBRNE gear, and briefings of the next two days.
Manual litter carries
Newest quick clot being used in theatre. Embedded in gauze.
A medic kit
Practicing IO insertion
Our 2nd day in the field included many various lanes. Our platoon started off with a convoy ops hit with an IED, then a rescue mission in getting soldiers out of a down airplane, and a tactical lane in which our squad was in charge of transporting a box to our destination while carrying wounded soldiers. These lanes were made to be as realistic as possible. The mannequins that played as wounded soldiers were about 200lbs. IEDs/mortar rounds sound effects and machine gun fire sound effects were going off during all of the commotion.
Going on a lil trip
Road trip
The last lane for the day was in a controlled building with strobes, dim lights, loud noises, and various mannequins with various battle injuries. Our squad was to clear the building, rescue, and treat our soldiers in the building.
Our last day in the field consisted of Level II care training. In this setting the patients have been delivered to us and we are able to provide more services than out in the battlefield. We have access to a pharmacy, chest tubes, telemetry, and more.
Packaged and ready to go
KIA
Arrival
Tracking the flow
Treatment
We finalized our last field day with a full out Level II scenario in which one platoon was moulaged and the other platoon were in charge of the Level II facility. Those in the Level II facility were split into various groups: triage, treatment, and evacuation. We were to simulate a real Level II facility taking patients just as if we were in theater.
I enjoyed working with all the medical staff from all the other different services. Everyone was helpful and everyone had something from their experience to share whether it was about their profession or what it was like being deployed.
The biggest lesson I learned was "we'll make do with what we have." All of our scenarios involved lack of supplies and resources: there aren't enough litters, the next pick up is in 1.5 hours, we're out of gauze; these are some of the things that we had to deal with while conducting our lanes. One of the Navy HM-2 instructors told us about the time he was out with the marines for a one-day mission. He packed enough just for one-day as he was instructed. The group's stay outside the wire was for 60+ days. He had to live on just that one-day pack for a long time, including the use of his medic kit.
If our our corpsmen, medics, and our medical facilities overseas can make do with what they have, then our medical centers stateside should have no problem at all with the abundant resources and staff, right?
C4 was a blast! I'm looking forward to my next course: Joint Forces Combat Trauma Management Course in November.
Me and a really hilarous cool German Army PA
