Staff Sgt. Frank Johnson, Head Medic, HHC, TF Alamo decides to use a tourniquet to stop the mock bleeding of TF Alamo's Geoffrey Addison, Combat Medic, C Company arm injury during Stage 3 of Combat Medic Advanced Skills Training. Spc. Michael O’Neal
Posted on 08/08/2006 5:25:55 PM PDT by SandRat
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo (Army News Service, Aug. 8, 2006) – The new Combat Medic Advanced Skills Training is ensuring medics understand the difference between garrison and combat trauma care.
Medics at Camp Bondsteel recently participated in the new course, taught via video teleconference by the Army’s Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
The weeklong course tested student medics through a simulated combat scenario that involved treating Soldiers wounded by IEDs and small arms fire. Qualified instructors measured medics’ skills during a culminating field exercise, and medics were also given a written test to validate their mastery of the training.
“One of the reasons this training was so significant is that it threw the medics into a simulated combat situation, put a lot of pressure on them and forced them to think critically while making fast decisions,” said Staff Sgt. Frank Johnson, head medic and NCOIC of Task Force Alamo. “This is what they’ll have to do if and when they go to combat.”
The course was founded on the basic principles of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC-3) with modifications that include: management of the airway, chest trauma, hemorrhage and hypovolemic shock.
The modifications address the two leading causes of death on the battlefield: exsanguinations (bleeding) from extremity wounds and tension pneumothorax. Extremity wounds account for more than 60 percent of all wounds on today’s battlefield.
And even with body armor, penetrating chest trauma leaves route for air to escape the body quickly, which creates pressure on the lungs and asphyxiation.
“These changes are the product of battlefield experience from Soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Johnson.
One of the chief ideas behind the training was to instill “care under fire,” Johnson said.
When a medic’s battle buddy is injured and bleeding, most medics’ instinct is to rush to the Soldier’s aid. But “your first priority is to send rounds down range to suppress fire. Then you find a safe environment to provide medical care,” he said.
The training was “a good experience because it draws on the tactical aspect of medicine in a field environment,” said student medic Spc. Juan Trevino, Company A, Task Force Alamo. “It is extremely important because practice makes perfect when you have to save a life for real.”
Staff Sgt. Frank Johnson, Head Medic, HHC, TF Alamo decides to use a tourniquet to stop the mock bleeding of TF Alamo's Geoffrey Addison, Combat Medic, C Company arm injury during Stage 3 of Combat Medic Advanced Skills Training. Spc. Michael O’Neal
Life-Savers in Cammies
I like that a lot! Send rounds down range first!
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