...and then the rains came. We got our first major rain here at TQ and we're seeing up close how this place changes from baron desert to muddy floodlands. The morning after Easter I had to walk to the shower and a 2 foot lake was in front of the shower trailer. The worst part about the rain is the eventual clean up. You can't keep the mud out of your hooch. This past week and a half started out with rain and ended with warm, dry weather. This allowed us to have a BBQ picnic to welcome the new staff from Al Asad. We had a good time with all the near beer and steaks we could enjoy and played volleyball.
Overall, patient flow has been average to below average. Only one mass casualty (over 3 patients) since Easter. Thankfully, no major problems here on base. We had one special patient come through. He was an 18 month old Iraqi boy who was hit by sharpnel from a mortar round in the hand. He instantly melted the hearts of all the staff. Unfortunately he had some tendon and nerve damage which needed to be surgically addressed. Its in situations like this when we find out how frustrating it is to care for Iraqi civilians. They have very little, with respect to health care infrastructure, in our area for traumatic/surgical conditions. It's a topic of heated debate around here, because taking care of Iraqi civilians is not within our mission scope, but we find ourselves from time to time dealing not only with medical issues, but with case management and disposition issues that are extremely challenging. Some of the docs have even had ethical conflicts with standards of care when it comes to treating Iraqis. There's obviously a serious void of Iraqi health care professionals, and we hear occasional stories of corruption amongst some Iraqi officials. It gives you the impression that no matter what happens, some form of humanitarian/medical aid will need to be present here for years to come. A slim majority of patients in our level III facilities are Iraqis and they are generally not permitted to be sent out of country. Unfortunately, we had a Marine pass away after a spirited effort by everyone to try and save his life. Not only did he have severe extremity injuries (above knee amputation and upper extremity arterial injury) , he had undergone emergent chest and abdominal surgery, and more than likely subcame to intracranial bleeding. These are the toughest loses for us. We feel that if a patient can reach us with a pulse, then should be able to save them. I know it's not always possible, but it's more disheartening to lose someone who had signs of life when they reached you.
Day to day, we are trying to keep our minds occupied to help the time pass. Recently, I've turned into an aerobics nut. I must confess that I never tried aerobics before this deployment, but now I'm hooked. It's much more entertaining than running on treadmill, and at the end of the session, I sore in places I never thought could be sore. We are also starting our tradition of the moonlight campfire porch. This is an area just outside of our living spaces where someone sets down a battery powered lantern which we sit around in a circle and swap stories under the bright desert starlight. You have to do things like this or else you'll go crazy from the intermittent boredom.
Overall, patient flow has been average to below average. Only one mass casualty (over 3 patients) since Easter. Thankfully, no major problems here on base. We had one special patient come through. He was an 18 month old Iraqi boy who was hit by sharpnel from a mortar round in the hand. He instantly melted the hearts of all the staff. Unfortunately he had some tendon and nerve damage which needed to be surgically addressed. Its in situations like this when we find out how frustrating it is to care for Iraqi civilians. They have very little, with respect to health care infrastructure, in our area for traumatic/surgical conditions. It's a topic of heated debate around here, because taking care of Iraqi civilians is not within our mission scope, but we find ourselves from time to time dealing not only with medical issues, but with case management and disposition issues that are extremely challenging. Some of the docs have even had ethical conflicts with standards of care when it comes to treating Iraqis. There's obviously a serious void of Iraqi health care professionals, and we hear occasional stories of corruption amongst some Iraqi officials. It gives you the impression that no matter what happens, some form of humanitarian/medical aid will need to be present here for years to come. A slim majority of patients in our level III facilities are Iraqis and they are generally not permitted to be sent out of country. Unfortunately, we had a Marine pass away after a spirited effort by everyone to try and save his life. Not only did he have severe extremity injuries (above knee amputation and upper extremity arterial injury) , he had undergone emergent chest and abdominal surgery, and more than likely subcame to intracranial bleeding. These are the toughest loses for us. We feel that if a patient can reach us with a pulse, then should be able to save them. I know it's not always possible, but it's more disheartening to lose someone who had signs of life when they reached you.
Day to day, we are trying to keep our minds occupied to help the time pass. Recently, I've turned into an aerobics nut. I must confess that I never tried aerobics before this deployment, but now I'm hooked. It's much more entertaining than running on treadmill, and at the end of the session, I sore in places I never thought could be sore. We are also starting our tradition of the moonlight campfire porch. This is an area just outside of our living spaces where someone sets down a battery powered lantern which we sit around in a circle and swap stories under the bright desert starlight. You have to do things like this or else you'll go crazy from the intermittent boredom.
Pics of the week (thanks to LCDR Neptune for some of the pics):
The lake by the shower trailers
LCDR Neptune enjoying the rain water
CAPT Jernigan fights off the flames from the grill
A picture of one of Saddam's MIG fighters
A make-shift cast shoe (with home made laces) for one of our peds patients
Our friend gets up close and personal with the camera
Our friend posing after his dressing change
CAPT Rodridguez helping me study up on my pediatric hand surgery
Picture of CDR Deordio consoling our friend
A nice shot of LT Morales and his perfect form for his volleyball serve
3 comments:
Doc Tally,
How are you? Hope things are going well. It's great being able to check out the local 'happenings' in your neck of the woods.
I love your 'wall of fame'...hope your family is hanging in there, and you too!
Take care and many blessings..just stay out of the 'butter'!
~GatorsGirl (a.k.a. Jackie Carr)
P.S. Gator's b-day is MAY 12. He doesn't like big deals made over these things, so you have my FULL permission to MAKE A BIG DEAL! I'll never tell! hee! hee!
Gatorgirl,
Thanks for the info on Gator's B-day. There's a lot of people here who would love to make a really big deal of his birthday, including myself. My family is doing fine, Thanks.
Doc Tally
Hi Harlan,
Karen and I hope you are staying dry! We are praying for you, and we are thinking about you. I was down in Florida for a week while Mom was in the hospital. She said you called. She is doing better, thank God. Things are winding down at Morgan State. I just have another week and a half, thank God! I'm not teaching this summer. I'm just working on research. Thanks for the blogs! We are thankful that the Lord continues to bless you. Karen and I know he has sent protecting angels to you, too. I will send another message soon!
Your cousin,
Patrick
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