Good medicine in bad places

The radio call came through at about 5 15 pm. Headquarters had been attacked and there were casualties—lots of casualties. In minutes a plan had been made and explained to the medical staff. As part of the team, I helped empty the field aid station of essential supplies before heading out to a “mass casualty scenario” in an armoured truck.

Our arrival was greeted by machine gun fire, explosions, noise, and chaos. On the field in front of us were casualties—patients with amputated limbs, abdominal wounds, penetrating chest trauma, and acute stress reactions. The site was secured, a triage point set up, and the casualties were retrieved, triaged, treated, and categorised for urgent evacuation. Slowly, order was brought to the scene and the last of the patients were put in ambulances. Mission accomplished.

This was the culmination of “Operation Bushmaster,” a 72-hour field exercise carried out in the heart of the Texan bush, designed to expose military doctors of the future to practising medicine in the combat environment.

It was the end of a tiring but fascinating four week military contingency medicine course run by the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, the only medical school in the United States tailored to students planning on careers in the armed services. Twelve students from the United Kingdom …