Medic heroes' mercy mission
From SALLY BROOK
in Afghanistan
May 03, 2007
The Sun
THEY are the courageous real-life M*A*S*H medics who put their lives on the line to save our soldiers in Afghanistan.
Day after day they rush into battle zones – some so dangerous their own protection teams are forbidden to go with them – to treat injured troops and bring them to safety.
The Sun has exclusively visited the field hospital at Britain’s Afghan base, Camp Bastion, where many of our maimed boys and girls are taken.
On the day the latest British war injury figures are released, we reveal the astonishing dedication of the medics who make sure those injured get the best of care.
-----------------------------------------------------
FOR British Army paramedic Audrey McKenna the biggest enemy she faces on the battlefields of Afghanistan is time.
The 26-year-old corporal is one of the “Golden Hour” medics who work tirelessly against the clock to save injured soldiers. They are the Afghanistan war’s unsung heroes.
The group’s nickname comes from the term used by US doctors in Vietnam, who discovered that the chances of survival for the severely wounded increased dramatically if they could be stabilised within the first hour of being injured.
Golden hour girl ... medic Audrey McKenna
So critical is time that Corporal McKenna and her colleagues at Camp Bastion, in Southern Helmand Province, sleep within yards of Chinook helicopters. They can be scrambled within minutes to fly medical teams to treat and bring back a badly wounded soldier.
Usually the medics of an Incident Response Team (IRT) go on their life-saving missions in groups of four with eight more men forming armed protection. But if the danger on the ground is deemed to be too high, the IRTs are on their own.
Then Cpl McKenna or a colleague will take just one fellow medic with them as they fly through enemy lines, often with enemy rocket propelled grenades whistling past the chopper.
On landing they run into a hostile night, ignoring any gunfire, to rescue a wounded patient.
Cpl McKenna, from Ayr, says: “It certainly focuses the mind when you are flying into the unknown. We don’t know what is going to happen.
Of course that can be unnerving, but as soon as you touch down and see the injured you forget about any gunfire or fighting going on.
“Your training kicks in and you focus on the patient. Nothing else.”
The Sun spent a day with the Golden Hour medics and the rest of the medical team at Camp Bastion field hospital and witnessed first hand their courage and incredible standard of care.
As well as the paramedics, flying personnel and guards, an IRT can also call on quick-response fire crews or bomb disposal officers if needed. The hospital’s Second in Command, Surgeon Commander Rob Ross, 44, is one of those who must decide how big a team to send out on a rescue bid.
He says: “We have to assess the risk of loss of life. We have very little time to make these decisions and it is a fine balancing act.
“While we won’t put our team in unnecessary danger, the patient’s care is our priority.”
And it is not just British patients that the medics at his hospital risk their lives for.
As well as other NATO troops, they also look after the Afghan army, police and civilians.
Mercy mission ... medics treat Agha Mohammed on the front line
In the past year this single field hospital, with just 25 beds, has dealt with the emergency care of 1,815 patients, including 390 civilians — 46 of those patients died. The week before The Sun’s visit the hospital lost four British soldiers — Ross Clark, 25, Liam McLaughlin, 21, Benjamin Reddy, 22, and Michael Smith, 39.
Their severe injuries claimed their lives within a horrific five-day period.
Sergeant Kevin Scrafton, 27, an emergency nurse from Sunderland, says: “Of course it is awful when someone dies. It affects us.
“We do our best to save them so it hits you hard when you lose someone. Afterwards we sit down as a team and talk through what happened. It’s a good way of coping with the pressure and, sometimes, the loss. But I am very proud of what I do. I’m here to help our guys get back as safely as possible.”
On his way ... Agha is loaded into ambulance after chopper flight to the base hospital
Sergeant Scrafton continues:
“Historically people talked a lot about the Golden Hour.
“But today we try and work on the maximum four hours principle.
“That means from the point of wounding to theatre we try and deal with patients in under four hours.”
The level of care is also boosted by the impressive medical training given to all troops. Every soldier has basic first aid and one in four is trained as a combat medic. But that doesn’t mean the medics of Camp Bastion ever run out of work. On the day The Sun was there they were called out five times to pick up casualties.
On one of these missions, The Sun was allowed to follow these heroes through every stage as they battled to save a soldier’s arm and leg.
Here we track them as they rush out into the field, bring back a patient and battle to save his limbs.
13:20 The hospital’s main control room gets a radio call from a regional British base. An Afghan soldier, who was shot in the forearm and thigh during a firefight with the Taliban, has just been brought into the small base at Garesk. The patient, 25-year-old Agha Mohammed, was shot at 9am and has travelled for hours to get to the facility — but he needs the more sophisticated surgery provided at Bastion.
13:26 The Chinook helicopter, complete with medics, flying crew and guards, is airborne.
13:36 The helicopter touches down in Garesk, 20 miles away, where the medics assess Agha, load him on to the Chinook and lift off again.
Saved ... Agha is treated in the operating theatre
13:45 The Chinook lands back at the airfield and the patient is transferred into an ambulance which goes straight to the hospital.
13:51 On arrival at A&E, the patient is assessed by a ten-man trauma team. His condition is so serious they decide to operate immediately — unsure about whether they will be able to save his arm and leg.
14:50 Surgery finishes — the team have managed to save his arm and leg.
15:00 Agha is taken to the ward to recover. He can’t speak English but a translator has been with him at every stage.
While drinking a cup of tea he says: “The medics and the doctors have saved my life.
“There is no question about it. I owe them everything. They are very brave people.”
thesun.co.uk
From SALLY BROOK
in Afghanistan
May 03, 2007
The Sun
THEY are the courageous real-life M*A*S*H medics who put their lives on the line to save our soldiers in Afghanistan.
Day after day they rush into battle zones – some so dangerous their own protection teams are forbidden to go with them – to treat injured troops and bring them to safety.
The Sun has exclusively visited the field hospital at Britain’s Afghan base, Camp Bastion, where many of our maimed boys and girls are taken.
On the day the latest British war injury figures are released, we reveal the astonishing dedication of the medics who make sure those injured get the best of care.
-----------------------------------------------------
FOR British Army paramedic Audrey McKenna the biggest enemy she faces on the battlefields of Afghanistan is time.
The 26-year-old corporal is one of the “Golden Hour” medics who work tirelessly against the clock to save injured soldiers. They are the Afghanistan war’s unsung heroes.
The group’s nickname comes from the term used by US doctors in Vietnam, who discovered that the chances of survival for the severely wounded increased dramatically if they could be stabilised within the first hour of being injured.
Golden hour girl ... medic Audrey McKenna
So critical is time that Corporal McKenna and her colleagues at Camp Bastion, in Southern Helmand Province, sleep within yards of Chinook helicopters. They can be scrambled within minutes to fly medical teams to treat and bring back a badly wounded soldier.
Usually the medics of an Incident Response Team (IRT) go on their life-saving missions in groups of four with eight more men forming armed protection. But if the danger on the ground is deemed to be too high, the IRTs are on their own.
Then Cpl McKenna or a colleague will take just one fellow medic with them as they fly through enemy lines, often with enemy rocket propelled grenades whistling past the chopper.
On landing they run into a hostile night, ignoring any gunfire, to rescue a wounded patient.
Cpl McKenna, from Ayr, says: “It certainly focuses the mind when you are flying into the unknown. We don’t know what is going to happen.
Of course that can be unnerving, but as soon as you touch down and see the injured you forget about any gunfire or fighting going on.
“Your training kicks in and you focus on the patient. Nothing else.”
The Sun spent a day with the Golden Hour medics and the rest of the medical team at Camp Bastion field hospital and witnessed first hand their courage and incredible standard of care.
As well as the paramedics, flying personnel and guards, an IRT can also call on quick-response fire crews or bomb disposal officers if needed. The hospital’s Second in Command, Surgeon Commander Rob Ross, 44, is one of those who must decide how big a team to send out on a rescue bid.
He says: “We have to assess the risk of loss of life. We have very little time to make these decisions and it is a fine balancing act.
“While we won’t put our team in unnecessary danger, the patient’s care is our priority.”
And it is not just British patients that the medics at his hospital risk their lives for.
As well as other NATO troops, they also look after the Afghan army, police and civilians.
Mercy mission ... medics treat Agha Mohammed on the front line
In the past year this single field hospital, with just 25 beds, has dealt with the emergency care of 1,815 patients, including 390 civilians — 46 of those patients died. The week before The Sun’s visit the hospital lost four British soldiers — Ross Clark, 25, Liam McLaughlin, 21, Benjamin Reddy, 22, and Michael Smith, 39.
Their severe injuries claimed their lives within a horrific five-day period.
Sergeant Kevin Scrafton, 27, an emergency nurse from Sunderland, says: “Of course it is awful when someone dies. It affects us.
“We do our best to save them so it hits you hard when you lose someone. Afterwards we sit down as a team and talk through what happened. It’s a good way of coping with the pressure and, sometimes, the loss. But I am very proud of what I do. I’m here to help our guys get back as safely as possible.”
On his way ... Agha is loaded into ambulance after chopper flight to the base hospital
Sergeant Scrafton continues:
“Historically people talked a lot about the Golden Hour.
“But today we try and work on the maximum four hours principle.
“That means from the point of wounding to theatre we try and deal with patients in under four hours.”
The level of care is also boosted by the impressive medical training given to all troops. Every soldier has basic first aid and one in four is trained as a combat medic. But that doesn’t mean the medics of Camp Bastion ever run out of work. On the day The Sun was there they were called out five times to pick up casualties.
On one of these missions, The Sun was allowed to follow these heroes through every stage as they battled to save a soldier’s arm and leg.
Here we track them as they rush out into the field, bring back a patient and battle to save his limbs.
13:20 The hospital’s main control room gets a radio call from a regional British base. An Afghan soldier, who was shot in the forearm and thigh during a firefight with the Taliban, has just been brought into the small base at Garesk. The patient, 25-year-old Agha Mohammed, was shot at 9am and has travelled for hours to get to the facility — but he needs the more sophisticated surgery provided at Bastion.
13:26 The Chinook helicopter, complete with medics, flying crew and guards, is airborne.
13:36 The helicopter touches down in Garesk, 20 miles away, where the medics assess Agha, load him on to the Chinook and lift off again.
Saved ... Agha is treated in the operating theatre
13:45 The Chinook lands back at the airfield and the patient is transferred into an ambulance which goes straight to the hospital.
13:51 On arrival at A&E, the patient is assessed by a ten-man trauma team. His condition is so serious they decide to operate immediately — unsure about whether they will be able to save his arm and leg.
14:50 Surgery finishes — the team have managed to save his arm and leg.
15:00 Agha is taken to the ward to recover. He can’t speak English but a translator has been with him at every stage.
While drinking a cup of tea he says: “The medics and the doctors have saved my life.
“There is no question about it. I owe them everything. They are very brave people.”
thesun.co.uk