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CNN Live At Daybreak

Six Weeks with 'Devil Docs'

Aired May 16, 2003 - 05:53   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They are not ordinary doctors. They're combat doctors and they operate on the front lines under the most difficult conditions imaginable.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta spent six weeks with the so-called "devil docs" in Marine Company Bravo during the war in Iraq.

This is part of their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the sights and sounds of war. But behind each explosion are stories most people turn away from, stories of the injured, maimed and killed. These stories are not often told, wounds too terrible to remember and often too vivid to forget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm giving you medicine, OK?

LT. TOMMY OLSON, PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT, U.S. NAVY: Some of the things I've seen here you don't see anywhere in the States, even working inner city hospitals, large caliber wounds.

GUPTA: These doctors and nurses staff what's called a forward resuscitative surgical system. That's the equivalent of an operating room and six bed emergency room. They travel to within 20 miles of the front lines. They not only see the human cost of war, but hear the stories that go with it, often for the first time.

This young corporal is anxious to tell his story, an assault on an enemy location.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never made it inside the building. I got hit before.

GUPTA: He, like many Marines, was brought here by helicopter. The doctors here remember the stories as much as the wounds.

Hospital Medic Sonya Hamrick has been in the military for 13 years. A mother of two young girls, this is Hamrick's first experience on the front lines of combat.

SONYA HAMRICK, HOSPITAL MEDIC 2ND CLASS, U.S. NAVY: I just love their stories. I love how they tell me about their wives, their families, the fact that they're going to live, where they're from. Last night I held this first sergeant's hand as he passed away and that, to me, is a story. I mean although he couldn't tell me where he was from, what he was doing, I could just feel it and I stayed with him. And he's a story I'll take with me forever. I'll always think about him. He'll become my story in my journal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Tune in for a special documentary on the devil docs Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern on "CNN Presents."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired May 16, 2003 - 05:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They are not ordinary doctors. They're combat doctors and they operate on the front lines under the most difficult conditions imaginable.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta spent six weeks with the so-called "devil docs" in Marine Company Bravo during the war in Iraq.

This is part of their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the sights and sounds of war. But behind each explosion are stories most people turn away from, stories of the injured, maimed and killed. These stories are not often told, wounds too terrible to remember and often too vivid to forget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm giving you medicine, OK?

LT. TOMMY OLSON, PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT, U.S. NAVY: Some of the things I've seen here you don't see anywhere in the States, even working inner city hospitals, large caliber wounds.

GUPTA: These doctors and nurses staff what's called a forward resuscitative surgical system. That's the equivalent of an operating room and six bed emergency room. They travel to within 20 miles of the front lines. They not only see the human cost of war, but hear the stories that go with it, often for the first time.

This young corporal is anxious to tell his story, an assault on an enemy location.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never made it inside the building. I got hit before.

GUPTA: He, like many Marines, was brought here by helicopter. The doctors here remember the stories as much as the wounds.

Hospital Medic Sonya Hamrick has been in the military for 13 years. A mother of two young girls, this is Hamrick's first experience on the front lines of combat.

SONYA HAMRICK, HOSPITAL MEDIC 2ND CLASS, U.S. NAVY: I just love their stories. I love how they tell me about their wives, their families, the fact that they're going to live, where they're from. Last night I held this first sergeant's hand as he passed away and that, to me, is a story. I mean although he couldn't tell me where he was from, what he was doing, I could just feel it and I stayed with him. And he's a story I'll take with me forever. I'll always think about him. He'll become my story in my journal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Tune in for a special documentary on the devil docs Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern on "CNN Presents."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com