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Medical Care in the Field

Aired March 26, 2003 - 15:06   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.


WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: We have a special guest, now Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our CNN medical correspondent, just back from the field. You've been to Iraq. You're now back. You haven't taken a shower in nine days but you look pretty good.
Why are you here instead of with the Devil Docs, those Navy doctors you've been reporting from all this time?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, you know, Wolf, the story we were trying to get was really to understand how medical care is given in the field.

Starting with the front line, which we showed, you know, these operating rooms in the field, right at the front line. We want to follow these patients back now, all the way back to definitive care on the rare line and even maybe back to the USS Comfort. That's where we're going to try and head next.

USS Comfort is a spot where they actually take care of a lot of patients and give them more definitive care, complete the operations, actually keep them there for several days and decide whether or not they're going to be ready to go back to duty.

We want to find out -- we want to talk with some of these Marines, as well, who have seen the front lines, who have actually been injured, find out what their stories are, how their care was, and everything that's going on with them.

BLITZER: Even as we talk, Sanjay, we're now hearing sirens and bombs, more explosions in Baghdad. They usually happen around this time at night in this part of the world. But the -- Al Jazeera, by the way, is reporting three more bombs heard exploding in Baghdad tonight.

But let's talk a little bit about what you experienced over these past, what, nine days you were embedded with these medical doctors?

GUPTA: Yes. Right, right. Well, I'll tell you, the really amazing thing about the Devil Docs, is they're able to set up these operating rooms -- you can see there -- right in the field.

Everything you're seeing there is done, actually, in the field. Operating rooms set up in about an hour, and in the middle of the desert, actually being able to do this without contaminating, keeping everything sterile, having the doctors actually be able to perform operations that you'd normally see in urban settings in the middle of the desert.

The thing about it, Wolf, that was so interesting was that these -- in typical times in the past, they'd actually have to take patients for several hours to the rear of the field to be able to get their operations. But now, with these forward stations actually moving with the troops, they're getting their operations right there. We saw a lot of that.

We also saw a lot of other things. We had a missile fly over our heads. We had bomb -- we had bomb shelter calls. We had bunker calls, gas alarm calls. We had to put on these gas masks. You saw me reporting with the gas mask on several times.

That was no joke: 16 times in 12 hours, having to do that, sometimes sitting there for an hour at a time, those were all new things, clearly, to me, and something that I saw the troops actually going through.

BLITZER: Is it technically possible for a doctor, a surgeon, one of these Devil Docs, and you're a surgeon yourself, to operate on someone wearing these gas masks?

GUPTA: You know, we saw them actually do that very thing. In fact, the helo call came in, that means several patients were in bound. And just before the helo landed, there was a gas call.

So everybody put on their gas masks, the surgeons all running out to the helicopters with their gas masks and their MOPP suits, I should add, as well, which is very heavy, very hot, especially in the middle of the desert. Picking up the patients, taking them into the operating room and starting the procedures with the full gear on.

They washed their hands because they had to do that to be able to perform surgery, but everything else was full gear.

BLITZER: And then they put the gloves on, obviously, after they washed their hands.

GUPTA: That's right.

BLITZER: Now you mentioned that the USS Comfort -- the USNS Comfort...

GUPTA: That's right.

BLITZER: ... that's the Navy hospital ship that's here in the Persian Gulf. They have a lot of beds, what are there, a thousand beds on that ship or something?

GUPTA: Yes, I think it's about 800 beds.

BLITZER: Yes, so that's a bed huge hospital. Are they already evacuating injured personnel to that hospital?

GUPTA: Yes, they absolutely are. Some of the patients, in fact, that we saw get their operations, get their care were taken by helicopter already to the USNS Comfort." So we were hoping to catch up with them, really follow their whole -- their whole progress.

BLITZER: All right. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent. You're looking good, I don't know how you're smelling, but you're looking good. You'll have a chance to take a shower now.

We'll have you back in the next hour, we'll talk a little bit more about this. You did an excellent job for us.

GUPTA: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: Glad to have you back here in Kuwait City.

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 March 26, 2003 - 15:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: We have a special guest, now Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our CNN medical correspondent, just back from the field. You've been to Iraq. You're now back. You haven't taken a shower in nine days but you look pretty good.
Why are you here instead of with the Devil Docs, those Navy doctors you've been reporting from all this time?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, you know, Wolf, the story we were trying to get was really to understand how medical care is given in the field.

Starting with the front line, which we showed, you know, these operating rooms in the field, right at the front line. We want to follow these patients back now, all the way back to definitive care on the rare line and even maybe back to the USS Comfort. That's where we're going to try and head next.

USS Comfort is a spot where they actually take care of a lot of patients and give them more definitive care, complete the operations, actually keep them there for several days and decide whether or not they're going to be ready to go back to duty.

We want to find out -- we want to talk with some of these Marines, as well, who have seen the front lines, who have actually been injured, find out what their stories are, how their care was, and everything that's going on with them.

BLITZER: Even as we talk, Sanjay, we're now hearing sirens and bombs, more explosions in Baghdad. They usually happen around this time at night in this part of the world. But the -- Al Jazeera, by the way, is reporting three more bombs heard exploding in Baghdad tonight.

But let's talk a little bit about what you experienced over these past, what, nine days you were embedded with these medical doctors?

GUPTA: Yes. Right, right. Well, I'll tell you, the really amazing thing about the Devil Docs, is they're able to set up these operating rooms -- you can see there -- right in the field.

Everything you're seeing there is done, actually, in the field. Operating rooms set up in about an hour, and in the middle of the desert, actually being able to do this without contaminating, keeping everything sterile, having the doctors actually be able to perform operations that you'd normally see in urban settings in the middle of the desert.

The thing about it, Wolf, that was so interesting was that these -- in typical times in the past, they'd actually have to take patients for several hours to the rear of the field to be able to get their operations. But now, with these forward stations actually moving with the troops, they're getting their operations right there. We saw a lot of that.

We also saw a lot of other things. We had a missile fly over our heads. We had bomb -- we had bomb shelter calls. We had bunker calls, gas alarm calls. We had to put on these gas masks. You saw me reporting with the gas mask on several times.

That was no joke: 16 times in 12 hours, having to do that, sometimes sitting there for an hour at a time, those were all new things, clearly, to me, and something that I saw the troops actually going through.

BLITZER: Is it technically possible for a doctor, a surgeon, one of these Devil Docs, and you're a surgeon yourself, to operate on someone wearing these gas masks?

GUPTA: You know, we saw them actually do that very thing. In fact, the helo call came in, that means several patients were in bound. And just before the helo landed, there was a gas call.

So everybody put on their gas masks, the surgeons all running out to the helicopters with their gas masks and their MOPP suits, I should add, as well, which is very heavy, very hot, especially in the middle of the desert. Picking up the patients, taking them into the operating room and starting the procedures with the full gear on.

They washed their hands because they had to do that to be able to perform surgery, but everything else was full gear.

BLITZER: And then they put the gloves on, obviously, after they washed their hands.

GUPTA: That's right.

BLITZER: Now you mentioned that the USS Comfort -- the USNS Comfort...

GUPTA: That's right.

BLITZER: ... that's the Navy hospital ship that's here in the Persian Gulf. They have a lot of beds, what are there, a thousand beds on that ship or something?

GUPTA: Yes, I think it's about 800 beds.

BLITZER: Yes, so that's a bed huge hospital. Are they already evacuating injured personnel to that hospital?

GUPTA: Yes, they absolutely are. Some of the patients, in fact, that we saw get their operations, get their care were taken by helicopter already to the USNS Comfort." So we were hoping to catch up with them, really follow their whole -- their whole progress.

BLITZER: All right. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent. You're looking good, I don't know how you're smelling, but you're looking good. You'll have a chance to take a shower now.

We'll have you back in the next hour, we'll talk a little bit more about this. You did an excellent job for us.

GUPTA: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: Glad to have you back here in Kuwait City.

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