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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Encore Presentation: Combat Hospital
Aired March 28, 2007 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): ... contractor and a soldier and wounded five others, underscoring the danger.
The green zone is a heavily guarded walled-in section of Baghdad controlled mainly by the U.S. It's the site of the Iraqi government and parliament as well as the sprawling U.S. embassy.
Under the new Baghdad security plan, the goal is to shrink the secure area over the coming months, remove some checkpoints, reopen streets and turn control over to the Iraqis.
Despite the increase in attacks, the U.S. military says there are no plans to start moving non-essential workers out of the green zone. But U.S. contractors and other private workers, including some members of the western news media, are worried that a bad situation is about to get worse. Safety, after all, is often a matter of perception.
BRIG. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED: Is there routine intervention into the green zone by bad guys? Of course. Of course there is. Both on the ground and through mortar fire and through indirect fire. I mean, that stuff kind of happens.
MCINTYRE: The U.S. military doesn't have a good explanation for the recent up tick in so-called indirect fire attacks. One senior military official told CNN it may be linked to the detention of several leaders of a radical cell of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army. Another officer said Tuesday's deadly strike was simply a lucky shot.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Whether it's in the green zone, Anbar Province or elsewhere, dozens of American troops get hurt on any given day, making the hospital that you're about to see one of the busiest anywhere.
First, though, a warning. Parts of what you're going to see over the course of this next hour and some of the things you'll hear in the next hour are graphic and unfortunately all too real.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
Iraq 2006
(END GRAPHIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have a tube in your mouth that's helping you breathe, OK? Try not to fight it. We're taking care of you, all right? We're going to give you something to help you relax and keep your pain down, OK? You're in Baghdad right now. You're doing all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, let's go, guys. Let's mobilize.
LT. COL ROBERT MAZUR, M.D., NEW YORK, NEW YORK: So they come in this room, and they either go to beds one, two, or three.
Big trauma stuff happens here, a lot of tubes in chests, blood on the floor, blood on your shoes. This looks like a wreck, and this is not what a trauma hospital in the U.S. would look like, but it works.
CAPT. DAVID STEINBRUNER, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: We don't know. Truthfully, you won't know until they get here. They were urgent and it sounded like there was nervousness in the voice of the people calling it in.
Once you see the danger, see the problems, see the injuries, you're like, OK, we can deal with that. It doesn't matter how bad it is. But not knowing what's coming, that's worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy crap. Access guys get the IR out. OK, bud. All right, clear him off, guys. What is your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caleb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Caleb.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the clothes are going to come off, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's pretty pale. Breathe deep for me, Caleb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Am I (EXPLETIVE DELETED) dying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you having trouble breathing over there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's real pale, guys.
We've got an injury right here, amputation here, pretty bad injury on the right there. Can you move that hand at all? Yeah. Good. That's a good sign, bud.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, am I going to lose my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) leg? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. That I don't know. OK? We'll try to save it if we can. I just don't know. I can't give you an answer on that yet.
We had a young American soldier, totally alert and awake. He got a near amputation of his right hand and a very bad, bad fractures proximally and through the soft tissue of his left leg. He may or may not lose the left leg, too. With any luck, they can keep that going.
Don't you dare try to die on me. I didn't give you permission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't let me die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won't let you to die. I promise. I promise. OK? I give you my word. OK?
That was an easy promise for me to make. Because I'm pretty sure I can keep him from dying. He lost a lot of blood in the field but he is a young, healthy guy. So he was compensating and that's why he could talk and maintain everything like that. But you could see the color of his skin. He was pale. He was definitely looking very, very sick.
We've got to put him down. The poor guy is waking up. Totally with it, yeah. Yeah.
He says, "Please don't let me die." Sometimes I've said, "I won't," but every once in a while, I have, and that's the worst, you know? Some guys come off the battlefield so fresh -- not him. He'll do fine. Off the battlefield they're so fresh. They're going to die. We just don't know it yet. That's bad stuff. So ...
I think we try not to follow up on the patients and not really think too hard about what happens next. That makes it a little easier to bare. Feel like, OK, you did something good for that guy. He was in a lot of pain, he got definitive care. And then we kind of -- end of story. We did the best we could.
Then hopefully his life is OK, but we don't know.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep it in there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're doing good, sweetie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it the face or the ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, no the face. You guys are pushing down really hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to, OK? Watch your head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My toes are killing me.
LT. NATALIE SKATES, R.N., POLSON, MONTANA: Your toes are killing you? We're going to give you more pain medication, OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What finger hurts you now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Index.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thumb?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the story, Doc?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your face is going to-- if there's no fracture fractures, it's going to require a lot of sewing and wash out in the E.R.
SKATES: We're going to lift you up a little bit, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we're lifting. Hang on to that IV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your left toe, looks like you're going to lose a little bit of the distal part, the end of it right at the toenails there. Just a tip off the big toe and maybe the second toe in, just the tip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will I still be able to walk?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Of course. Not a problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll be able to do P.T. after this.
SKATES: There's a puncture wound right here, a few punctures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't my first barbecue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah? You've been to this before? You've got to stop visiting us. We appreciate you taking one for the team.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate you guys.
SKATES: But we love you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the same nurse that treated me before.
I didn't notice her by her face, but by her voice.
SKATES: I know, sweetie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's how I knew. I was here last time. It was not that long ago. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't want to be a frequent flier with us. That's never a good sign. After that happens, you win a set of steak knives and get to go home. How about that?
SKATES: This one is a first for me, having a repeat customer. A lot of them come in just with major injuries and they're joking around, trying to pull through. They just roll with the punches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on your experience, how long do you think it's going to take for me to recover?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good question. Probably, I don't know, maybe a month.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A month for all this shit to recover?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to prolong that because I still have three months left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did I say that? I mean three months. Didn't I say three months?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't call my mom this time. Last time they called her, she was freaked out.
SKATES: No, no, no. You're the one who's going to call her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pass through right. And they blew another one.
SKATES: Another one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luckily, nobody got hurt. It's not letting me open it up all the way.
SKATES: These guys are great guys. They really are. They have courage that I just would never, ever expect people to have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That guy has served his country. I mean, wounded twice in action plus the fear of every day going out and not knowing if you're going to get wounded again. That guy is a hero.
SKATES: That is my fiancee, Kevin Scott Farley. He's a MEDEVAC pilot stationed over here. We've been dating for about a year and a half now. We ended up deploying on the same day. And it just happened to be a coincidence that MEDEVAC unit supports our hospital as well. So every once in a while, I'll get to see him. Probably once or twice every few weeks just for a few minutes at a time.
Most people over here that have loved ones, they don't ever get to see their loved ones, so I'll take any minute that I can get with him. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The boards are clean again ad we can have a cup of coffee. It's feast or famine. Totally feast or famine. This is unheard of in the U.S. Have an empty board in an E.R. Unheard of. Maybe at 3:00 in the morning in a low volume place. Here because everybody works so hard and takes care of the patients, they don't sit around in E.R.s. They're not waiting for stuff. Get them in, get them out. Treat them, boom.
SKATES: Tell them to bring him around. Here. Drive in here. Drive. Hey, hey, drive in here.
All right. I know -- hey. Whoa, whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys ...
SKATES: I got -- I know it hurts, sweetie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going.
SKATES: We're going to bed one, OK?
LT. MATT BOWE, R.N., HELENA, MONTANA: Yeah, every day when you see patients, you learn something new. And sometimes you can kind of build on what you've learned with the next patient and you feel really good about that. Then when you are starting to feel really confident, and feel like hot shit something will come around and completely humble you.
SPC. GINA HERRERA, MEDIC, VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: OK. Great. Thank you.
When you first start out being a medic and you -- the first couple of times you see something really gruesome, you go through like an automatic drive, everything comes naturally. You know what you need to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to intubate you, which means to put you to sleep for a little bit. How does that sound?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That sounds good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dude, that left leg, it's coming off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's fine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... with the pain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand. HERRERA: We don't lie to them. We don't tell them, oh, everything is going it be fine, no, no, you'll be fine. Because that's -- that can mess them up emotionally, mentally, and leave them even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no way to save the leg, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The left leg, no. OK? Right leg, absolutely. OK? I'm sorry, man. I can't lie to you. OK? Hook me up with the intubator there. Hold on. Give me suction.
HERRERA: If you sit there and you're watching or you sit there afterwards and you think about it and it's like, wow, you know, that guy lost his leg. You know? It can really affect you, so as long as you can detach yourself from the emotions of the situation, then you just do your job and do as much as you can for the patients.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that comes out pretty well, actually.
CAPT. KARI BURROUGHS, R.N.: I have somebody's blood on me. I am hoping it's the donated blood, not the actual patient's blood. I also have the vomit on me, that's not always fun.
Should have probably had a mask on, maybe some eye protection. Because, you know, when he started puking I didn't really want that in my face.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The puke.
BURROUGHS: The puke. Puke is no good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are patients that come through the door, we're taking care of everybody the same way. Host nation, terrorists, U.S., we take care of patients.
BURROUGHS: Some of them soldiers, some of them insurgents. We've had about one insurgent today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wonder if people back home are mad at that or not mad at that. We don't care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you want? Do you want him Marty?
I would say for everybody as much as we hate to admit it, if it's an American soldier in there, as opposed to anybody else, our stress level goes up.
Marty has got him. Marty's got it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your full name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your first name? LT. JUSTIN WATSON, SURVIVED IED ATTACK: Justin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justin.
WATSON: Thomas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thomas.
WATSON: Watson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watson. W-A-T-S-O-N.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got you, buddy. All right. All right. We've just got some oxygen on you, OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to you, man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: IED.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you in a vehicle or on foot?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vehicle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and give him -- take him down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right arm, left arm, where you're poking at.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've got to go to sleep, OK? Try and relax.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stress is a good thing. A lot of pro athletes say they want to feel that stress. Your adrenaline goes better, you oxygenate better and you perform better.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're good. You want to drop an N.T. while we're at it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Have him get five milligrams of ...
LT. RIANE NELSON, R.N., SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: I was actually the newest lieutenant that we brought over here. I'd only been out of training for about four months by the time we came, three months when we started training.
There was another nurse who was supposed to go that apparently got pregnant, so they needed somebody to fill that slot, and I was picked.
LTC JOHN GROVES, HEAD NURSE, PORTAGE, INDIANA: Riane Nelson is a special officer. She came into the army with eight months of Medevec experience which is a little small emergency room in Colorado. She worried me. She worried me. She wasn't somebody putting her nose to the grindstone. I didn't see her head in the books. She wasn't progressing fast. So we worked hard on her. And it was many a days, weeks, when I got together with my key leaders and we thought of moving her. Then came Valentine's Day. A patient came in, CPR was being done, the patient had lost a lot of blood, and Riane was on the bed and they brought him back to life.
Commonly, when you start CPR they don't make it. But she pulled somebody out of the fire. So from that moment on, our confidence skyrocketed.
NELSON: You got this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Everybody ready? Are you with us?
NELSON: Which way are we rolling? Towards me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, roll.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready? One, two, three, roll.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's probably blood. But since you don't see any penetrating trauma, that's blunt but that also means there's no where for the blood to go.
MAJ. MARTY LUCENTI, M.D., ESSEX JUNCTION, VERMONT: He had a subdural hematoma. Which means he has got some bleeding around the brain. It was on the right side. And what that does is that squishes the brain. In severe cases, it can push your brain right down into your brainstem, right down into your spinal cord and that will kill you.
So what we did was give him stuff to minimize the bleeding and keep the pressure down and in the interim he gets taken to Balad by helicopter where they have a neurosurgeon. And the neurosurgeon will take him urgently to the E.R. and drill a hole right in his skull to let that hematoma out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tough kid. Very good kid to take care of. Gives me goose bumps when I see how strong those guys are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, this is LTC Bana (ph) calling. I'm here with (inaudible) battalion commander from Iraq here. He would like to speak with you real quick. Here he is.
WATSON: Michelle, babe. Yeah. I'm here. I'm OK. I'm fine. We got hit. I'm a little dinged up, but I'm OK and I'm in the hospital. I'll try to call again as soon as I'm a little less drugged up, but I'm fine, babe. I'm fine.
Honey? Honey, can you hear me? Honey? Goddammit. Honey, can you hear me? I can barely hear you. It might be because I had a loud explosion in my ear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this their unit right here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard for me. To think what we're going to do, how fast we're going to do it and everything it's ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not an easy war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No it's not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there still somebody in the vehicle?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. From here down from the C.O. (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, the arms and -- one arm was in one side. The nose was in ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't feel it. I'm sorry. You want to do me a favor? Talk to somebody about this stuff. Because it's going to haunt your dreams for a while. You know what I mean? Which is appropriate. If you just keep it bottled in, it's going to be bad news. And the two guys you saved are coming back here to say (inaudible) to you guys on the field. OK?
STEINBRUNER: I think that guy right there, the fact that he passed out on us was the fact -- he helped bring them in, collect the pieces and -- of his own soldiers that he's responsible for, and that just overwhelmed him. These guys are like fathers to these men out here. Right? Surrogate fathers? So what happens to them happened to their sons, essentially.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Want to turn around? I got him.
Hands down (ph) you did the best you could. Try as best to prepare as best as you could so that you ward off all of those bad doodoo you know? As long as you prepare for everything that could go wrong, hopefully nothing will go wrong. Hopefully he'll be good, good to go.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going to be on CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't check you into the E.R. if you ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go. Here's your losing toss. Here it comes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weak. Weak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's going to beat you, Sgt. Scott.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God. If it would have been a spiral.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There we go. Get a good look at the name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ortman (ph), happy birthday to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us buy you your first beer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I missed the good part.
(GROUP CHANTING): Chug! Chug! Chug!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah! Woo!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Healthy lifestyle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I missed the good part!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's still good, it's still good. Ten second rule.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh! Gross.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Stars & Stripes" charge by the lettering. "Family stability seen as among the G.I.'s top reasons" -- not to reenlist. They forgot that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't do that. That would defy gravity.
BOWE: I think probably one of the neatest things will be when we get back to the states, and we're all wearing our civilian clothes for the first time in 12 months. And it will be funny again to see who's wearing cowboy boots, and who's wearing basketball shorts. And who's wearing earrings. And we'll be the most diverse, cohesive group of Americans bar hopping Colorado Springs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go down that thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go fast, man.
CAPT. STEINBRUNER: I got you are working your homework, with all the numbers and letters that you drew, and the pictures. I got that in the mail. You drew a picture of Yoda? You're going to send it to me? Good.
I need to get a baseball glove so that I can catch when I'm out here. I left my glove back in Colorado. I don't think -- I don't think -- ask mom if my glove is in the closet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some ethics --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, (INAUDIBLE) not breathing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me a tube guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Want a bag on her, Steve?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bag her? OK. Lift her up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is she shot?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. There we go. Guys, we need to get access on her. Gave me a smaller tongue blade as well. I've got two right there, so --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her brother shot her? Accidentally?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody slow down. We've got an air way. We're bagging it right now. How many kilos do we think she is? See what her pressures are first and some pain medicine. How about morphine? We're going to use .2 mgs per kg on her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I measure it out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perfect. That's fine. Any thoughts, gentlemen? While I have you here at the head of the bed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She needs a heart line somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, we can either try putting it to the side of that central line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys put that line in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shh-shh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it is. Everybody, quiet up. I want it a little quieter in this trauma room right now, for her sake. It's not our emergency. It's hers. Chuck's right over there. Let me wipe some stuff off real quick. Let's take off her pigtails. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both of these are going to want to be (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, there it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's shot right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There it is. None. OK, ready? Go ahead and wrap the head. OK. I think this is a single gun shot wound through the trachea to the ear, just behind the canal.
Guys, listen up for a second. Listen up. This is not going to be a good outcome on her. This is not going it be a good outcome. She's got no tone, fixed pupils, no gag reflex, gun shot into the ear, probably across midline, so -- slow and purposeful.
She was shot in the right ear and it transversed through the skull, and came out the left ear. She can't -- I think she was down for about 30 minutes before we got to her. I guess I need from you, is there any hope for this girl? No? It seems to. There is actually air in the cord at the brain stem. It looks like it went right to the brain stem. I'm done. OK. That's what I thought.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her brother is sitting outside. I sat with him for a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old is he?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I'm about to find out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10, 11?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'd say, 14 maybe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he totally understands?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in a foreign language)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is the mother doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's devastated. She's reading the Koran right now. I'll give her as much time as she wants to read it and -- then I'll go back in. When she's ready, I'll just turn -- turn off the tube. When you turn off the respirator and then cut the tube, so it's not too long. And then just we'll wait. It probably won't be very long.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you turn off the pulse, the alarms? Turn off the alarms and the beep, beep, beep, beep.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can really hurt to think about her for a while. But just knowing that everyone in the room did everything that they could to take care of her is what is really important. Man, can't really talk anymore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MAZUR: Gunshot wound, left upper arm, chest, pelvis; gunshot wound, different patient, abdomen, chest -- and these are pretty much successive patients on a single day, or the next day.
Injury from fragments from a terrorist explosion, laceration to head; gunshot wound, left lower arm. Injury from terrorist explosion burns to cheek, burns to nose, burns to fingers, partial thickness; gunshot wound to neck; gunshot left, upper leg; gunshot wound, left upper; burns to face, head, and neck; injury due to terrorism, arm swelling, gunshot wound to left hand; injury from terrorist explosion, head, fractured, head, gunshot wound, gunshot wound, gunshot wound, IED arm, IED face, IED multiple frags; IED head; IED upper extremity, IED face.
In general, 94 percent of the patients that make it to this cache we save.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this the cutting edge of emergency medicine out here?
MAZUR: Oh, yeah. For trauma, trauma resuscitation, yeah.
(HELICOPTER ROAR)
Helicopters. You get used to listening for the helicopters. When we hear the choppers, my heart rate still goes up.
(HELICOPTER ROAR)
MAZUR: I got tube, collar, suction. This 100 percent non rebreather, this? We're good. KY jelly, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sounds like we have two Iraqis who got shot at a checkpoint coming in.
MAZUR: IO kits?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: IO Kits, they're ready to go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get rid of bed three.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Escaped patient?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) to the chest and to the abdomen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
MAZUR: I've got them. Greg, you've got more coming.
I personally hope that I will not develop PTSD because I will not play God or worry about who's right, who's wrong, which side of the fence you're on. One, two, three.
(MAN SCREAMING IN PAIN)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK? Relax big guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're human. So, you know this guy blew up those guys, and then some of his friends shot this guy, and we're taking care of both of them simultaneously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Settle down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marty, do you need help?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no.
SGT. CHRIS ROSS, MEDIC: Yeah, it gets to you a little bit, especially when you're trying to help them. Most of the time they're confused, they don't know what's going on. So, it's not their fault. Just gets frustrating.
MAZUR: We didn't see any on his back. We need to actually roll him again, when he's a little more calm.
ROSS: (speaking foreign language) Medicine.
If I was the patient and I was in an Iraqi hospital and they were holding me down speaking Arabic, I don't think I would be able to relax, and let them take care of me.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to need to sedate him, we're just going to put him down.
ROSS: His medical care is the number one priority. So wrestling with him kind of took over. We had to put him down so that we could get him the best care possible.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 121 over 79 is our pressure. He's going to get Vecarian (ph), 10 milligrams.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's put a tourniquet on right here. We had this injury. I didn't see anything on that arm. We have a buttocks injury, which I'm a little worried about, for a pelvic bleed. That's why we're doing a chest, abdomen.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chest, abdomen, pelvis CT.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fine.
Hey, you're the man. Another day in Baghdad.
(FADE TO BLACK)
(BABY CRIES)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry, just --
MAZUR: The insurgents must have felt like her family was interacting with the Americans too much. They went in there and they shot the mom and dad -- and her. I don't understand the culture, but -- I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just cleaning up her hands a little bit. They're a little dirty. She's really relaxed right now, so I thought I'd take advantage of it, and clean it up a little bit.
Everybody else is doing stuff that's painful, so I figured I'd take care of her a little bit.
MAZUR: She has a small foot fracture from a penetrating injury. (CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's horrible that the frigging world it is today that parents got murdered, but it's so cool that we're here to take care of her. Maybe if we weren't here in the first place, it wouldn't have happened in the first place?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that the ones that are growing up now with the Americans here their entire life, they don't have that controversy of how it was before and how it is now, the difference. All they're going to know is us -- and hopefully if everyone that's in my position and positions like mine -- do the right thing and do their job well, they're going to grow up and not have a problem with Americans.
She might think it's painful and not like it now, but in the long run, she'll know that the Americans helped save her foot so that she didn't have to loose it. I'm sure she'll appreciate that. I'm pretty sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least I hope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I hope so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, I'm going to go smoke a cigarette because my sinuses are getting all --
SGT. BRANDON BENJAMIN, MEDIC: Why a child? What did the little girl have to do with any of it? I mean, what, is she like two, three, four? What is she doing? Telling the Americans, oh, they're over there. All she's going to do is play jacks or jump rope or something simple. You know? That's why I had to leave. Because my --
LT. COL. JOHN GROVES, R.N.: Everybody is affected by what goes on here. I think once we leave here it will be more impressionable on us. Having just come back from leave, it was clear to me, being with my family, and strangers, civilians, veterans who were thanking me, that we're really doing something that's not normal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That better?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bet she won't remember us either.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, probably not.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, given the way that you catch, man, you might want to stand in a different spot there, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing better than the sound of the ball going in the glove.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The smell of leather.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're from Boston fan, again, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
I kept thinking you were a Yankee fan, I'm like --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yankees? I was born in Boston. I was a Boston Red Sox fan when they had no hope.
Dude! I'm not 6 foot, 5.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't thrown a hard ball in ages. I have a soft ball.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah? Ball's long gone.
BOWE: This is the best possible job in the world right now. Not even because it's, you know, trauma, you know, cool guy stuff. Because of who we're taking care of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys do some tough stuff out there. You know what I mean?
We're -- I mean, we'll take care of you anytime something happens, but we know that you guys have a tough time, you know? So, be safe and have a safe trip. May I never see you back here in a professional capacity ever again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Thank you, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're welcome.
BOWE: The courage thing, everybody says that. I get e-mails every day, my wife sends me, my friends send me, we're so proud you. I don't think anyone uses that here. Nobody talks about that. It's our job.
And you know that it could be dangerous, you know, those guys are out there. I thought about that yesterday. Walking back from the PX, we see a convoy of HUMVEES come down the street. And you know they just came through the red zone. And they just came through a place where they could have died. Now they can breathe a little safer was they're in the green zone.
I think those guys a courageous. They don't think of that.
(BUGLER, PLAYING TAPS)
MAJ. SUMERU MEHTA, M.D.: Memorial Day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah?
MEHTA: It is, right? Well, it's still not technically over there yet, but it will be, in a few hours.
Where you going.
They're going back home, off grilling burgers and hot dogs and barbecues. We're continuing on with the mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Steinbruner, you're just in time. I need some help. There's a lady in the back.
(CROSSTALK)
(PATIENT SCREAMS)
STEINBRUNER: Go ahead and get tubes.
(PATIENT SCREAMS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK, man. You're going to be fine, man.
MEHTA: We've got people back home, we have friends who are getting married, friends who are celebrating their 30th birthday. I mean, they know we're here, yet it's sort of a side thought, out of mind, out of sight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need somebody to hold his head down while we intubate him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, the respect that I have for what the -- for what the front line troops do, it's unbelievable.
MEHTA: I need a chest, pelvis and -- lower extremities, OK?
You ask me if I could take an M-16, go out on the front lines, break down doors and do that? Most people here wouldn't be able to do it.
So, we're trying to do what we can, the best that we can do it, to make sure they get home, back to their families. So that they don't have to visit them at a grave on Memorial Day. They can be at home with them at a barbecue.
Hey, buddy, we're going to put you to sleep, OK? We're going to need to do an evaluation, OK? We'll take really good care of you, OK? And get you back home, OK?
Just another day.
It's like "Groundhog Day". Every day is the same.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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