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CNN Sunday Morning

Civilian Docs Help Military Docs Learn Skills For Combat

Aired April 07, 2002 - 11:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, well gunshots, accidents, burns, it's what many emergency room doctors face everyday and now with the increased urgency, civilian trauma centers are helping U.S. military doctors and medics learns medical skills that they can use in combat. CNN's Mark Potter reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At the Ryder Trauma Center near Miami, another accident victim is medivac'd for treatment. This high tech emergency room sees about 3,500 serious injuries a year, a third of them gunshot and knife wounds. For army medical teams preparing for combat deployment overseas, an urban trauma center is a perfect learning lab.

DR. STEPHEN COHN, RYDER TRAUMA CENTER: They get a lot of exposure, and hopefully when they're ready to be deployed to Afghanistan or Pakistan or Somalia or wherever they have to go that they're be able to perform at a high level.

POTTER: At bases where they are normally stationed, most military doctors actually see very little action. Violent crime and serious accidents are rare.

LT. COL. MIKE HARKABUS, U.S. ARMY: We're at a small community hospital. Trauma for us is, you know, somebody just falling down a couple stairs.

POTTER: By agreement between the Ryder Trauma Center and the U.S. Army, combat surgical teams from around the world are rotated through Miami for advanced training and experience. Army and civilian personnel work side-by-side.

LT. COL. DARLA JONES, U.S. ARMY: We had a knife injury to the left ventricle last night, which is a hand-to-hand combat injury, close combat injury that you would also see in the field.

POTTER: The Navy and Air Force have similar programs in Los Angeles and Baltimore. For some of the young medics, this is their first encounter with so much blood and violence.

JONES: It's a shock. It's traumatic. It's emotional and it's better for them to be exposed to that here and to be ready when they're deployed into the field, so that they can focus on what they're there to do.

POTTER: The training program was planned before September 11th, but since the war in Afghanistan, rotations through the urban trauma centers have been stepped up. Mark Potter, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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