A little business..

***Family Warning: This post contains graphic photographs***

This past week was a bit busier in many respects. We had our first mortar attack since my arrival (while trying to Skype with my wife, no less). She didn't particularly enjoy hearing the explosion followed by the giant voice on the loudspeaker as I ran into a nearby bunker holding my laptop! Thankfully, no one was injured and I was able to let her know that I was fine. This used to be a daily occurence before the Army increased their presence here six months ago and stepped up patrols outside the "wire". Thank you Soldiers!

Unfortunately for the troops, we also started seeing some more traumas this week (the action tends to heat up during summertime). We do not do humanitarian work in Iraq, but we will treat locals if wounded by our troops or during an engagement. As such, we saw an EPW (enemy prisoner of war) who was shot in the face by a high-caliber rifle. Despite the gruesome appearance, he required relatively little heroics on our part.

We also saw a young Soldier who was shot through the forearm by a high caliber rifle (most injuries here are gunshot wounds or related to explosions). He was flown in by the "dust-off" chopper as shown below on our helipad:

As you can see by the following picture, he had a significant injury and required work by both myself and our Ortho doc. Despite shattering his ulna, severing an important nerve and injuring one of the two forearm arteries that required repair (thank you U of U vascular surgeons for your time and training) he retained a fair amount of function. He was all smiles as he flew out the next day (once the dust storm lifted) to continue his complex reconstructive course at a specialized hospital. Our job in Kirkuk is to stop life-threatening bleeding, stabilize all injuries and then transport to the main military hospital in Iraq for further care. They will then send patients on to Germany and the States if needed.

(notice the well-applied field tourniquet)

Regretfully, we also saw our first casualty of my tour. A young Soldier was hit by an RKG-3 (a hand-thrown grenade with a shaped charge), suffering devastating neck and chest wounds. We found out later that a teenager had thrown it! He probably died within the minute, but we worked hard on him for some time before deciding to cease our efforts. It turns out that he had already won a Purple Heart (one week prior) after surviving a separate attack with minimal injuries. Later that night, the base held a Ramp ceremony for him. More than fifteen hundred Airmen and Soldiers lined up on the flightline to respectfully solute his flag-draped casket as he was carried onto a plane headed back home. He will be placed alongside the many thousand other brave men and women that have lost their lives in service to their country. Specialist, we will not forget you!

We saw a few other patients, but I thought I would leave you with a picture of an Iraqi dust storm as it engulfs our forward base. Thank you for all of your prayers. Love to my entire family and especially to my Lady...I'm always with you Darlin'!!

P.S.: We have a GREAT chapel here with awesome worship and services on Sunday. I've even begun to meet a few solid Christian guys this week and have found a couple of Bible studies occuring throughout the base. Thank you Lord for always providing!!