Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [121]
EIGHTEEN X-RAY AND THE AUTHOR. A year after their time together at Camp Mackall, Tom Kendall and Dick Couch spend a few moments together in Iraq.
“That enemy fire is getting closer,” Burke tells his student. “What are you going to do?”
“His breathing is more regular now,” the student medic says as he checks the tourniquet. “I’m ready to move him.”
“Do so,” Burke replies.
The medic calls in his security, and they become litter bearers. They move the patient across a shallow ravine, where Burke allows they’re at a safe location—for a while. There the student medic begins his rapid assessment. He checks the patient’s torso and each limb for additional injury. Further inspection of the fallen soldier yields a broken leg. As the student medic works, he says what he’s doing and thinking. “Breathing rapid and shallow,” the medic reports. “As you find it,” Burke replies. On taking his patient’s blood pressure and pulse, the medic says, “One hundred twenty over 80, pulse 90 and strong”—the actual condition of the patient. Burke replies, “Ninety over 60, pulse weak and rapid,” and the medic treats his patient accordingly. The medic splints the leg and gets an IV started. The patient seems to have a neck injury that interferes with his breathing, so a neck collar is put in place. The patient’s now ready to be evacuated.
After a critique by Instructor Burke, the patient is carried out of the woods to the field hospital tent and hoisted upon a treatment table. There he will be tended by another student training team. The new team of caregivers will have the advantages of the field hospital equipment, but must work from the information given them on the 1380 form provided by the student medic in the field. The field hospital care and treatment is the third area of evaluation. A new student medic takes charge and continues to assess the patient’s injuries and conduct treatment.
Perhaps the hardest job is playing the victim. He’s a stage prop—all marked up, moulaged, and dressed to look like a battlefield casualty. He has to lie there and exhibit the assigned symptoms and stay in character as much as he can. It takes thirty minutes or more in the moulage tent to get made up, and nearly that much time to get cleaned up. And being a patient is also a learning experience; the student caregivers learn to handle others as they would like to be handled.
The trauma lanes are a good preparation for the field paramedic and EMT internship duty. After the twenty-six-week combat medic curriculum, the 18 Delta students have a short break before continuing with the second half of their Special Forces Medical Sergeant Course. The second half is the independent practice portion of the training. It begins in the lab with blood work, urinalysis, pharmacology, and parasitology, with follow-up work in disease assessment and management. The trauma training continues with advanced work in treating multiple battlefield patients. The prospective Special Forces medics also receive training in surgery, anesthesia, nursing, and postoperative care. And since combat medics may be the only medical option in a primitive area, they receive training in dental anesthesia and extractions. They also train in veterinary medicine, herd management, and food inspection.
Far more than the other MOS trainees, the 18 Delta candidates work in an academic and clinical environment. The Medical Training Center has a modern medical library, and the students have a wireless network for access to classroom materials and the instructor staff.
“I thought the combat medic course was a grind, but the independent practice training is even harder,” Byron O’Kane, now Staff Sergeant O’Kane, tells me when he is two-thirds of the way through his 18 Delta training. “There’s a lot to learn in the surgery and anesthesia training. You have to learn it, demonstrate proficiency in the operating room, and you have to stand for your oral boards. After that, we’ll have another internship out in a civilian hospital, where we spend time in the operating room and