Usually there is a physician riding in the ambulance that meets
the helicopters on the flight line. On this day, I got my chance to go.
Usually, it takes a lot of time for me to set up my stuff so it is often one of the other physicians that goes.
Patients are MEDEVAC´d to us usually by helicopter
and they always fly in sets of 2 for safety
(the Mormons aren't the only ones who believe in that rule!)
The patient arriving on this day was a Marine who was trying to get
his Humvee unstuck as it was stranded in the middle of a river. The
marines accepted the help of some local villagers and one of the villagers
hit the Marine in the back of the head with an axe that he was using when
the Marine wasn´t looking.
the circled areas on these x-ray photos show the hole
(behind his left ear) in his skull from the blow
amazingly enough, it looks like he's going to make a great recovery.
below he's being transported by plane to the next level of care where a neurosurgeon is located
(we cleaned the wound, treated it, and had him under close observation)
patients then go on to Germany before heading to the states.
We are not allowed to take pictures of our casualties faces so I had to blur his out.
