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CNN Sunday Morning

'Devil Docs' in Action

Aired March 30, 2003 - 06:16   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back live to Kuwait City. We're joined now by our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who came here to do medical stories.
Since you've been here, Sanjay, you've certainly found a talent for intercepting missiles and...

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KAGAN: ... that's kind of gotten in the way a little bit of your medical coverage. But now that things have calmed down for a day or two, just get to -- get to the stories that you really wanted to do.

GUPTA: Right. And one of the big stories certainly being the "Devil Docs," a colloquial name for a bunch of Navy doctors who support the Marines. About half of the ones we met reservists, half of them full time military. All of them facing the indescribably esoteric conditions of the desert and operating on all patients that come in, all of them, and doing it successfully.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No one said it would be easy to be a doctor in the desert during war. Surgeons used to modern luxuries are now eating out of brown sealed pouches, sleeping in tents and using the desert as their only bathroom. And during sandstorms, trying simply to keep their precious cargo from crashing to the desert floor, operating in military fatigues and at times, even in gas masks.

Helios flying in, bringing in blowing sand and the newly injured, many of them Iraqi. Nationality makes no difference, the "Devil Docs," an American nickname for the Naval doctors, do not falter. For them, medical and moral obligations do not change, even at time of war. And so surgeons will be soldiers. They carry guns, wear flack jackets and keep their gas masks at the ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, please proceed with surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Proceeding...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Proceed.

GUPTA: This is now their home and they don't know how long they'll be here. And while I report from their makeshift OR, they focus only on the human being in front of them. Scalpels fly, the anesthesia machines hum and all patients move in and out of this operating room in the sand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And one -- a couple of things that really struck me, one is that this operating room that you just saw totally mobile. It can break down in less than an hour and set back up less than hour. Why? So they can move with the troops. And certainly that puts some of these surgeons, some of them reservists, in harm's way as well.

The other thing, Daryn, really about 70 percent of the patients that they saw during the time I was there were Iraqi. And I think that was something that they didn't quite expect. They treat them all the same.

KAGAN: I guess a patient is a patient in their operating table.

GUPTA: That's right. I mean they said to me, one of the things that struck me, medical triage, not political triage is really important to keep that in mind, especially for these doctors out there confronted with these new situations. A lot of these guys general surgeons, they have their own practices back home. First patient that came in was an Iraqi with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. It came right on the heels of a lot of these doctors learning for the first time that four U.S. soldiers had been executed.

KAGAN: You went through quite a harrowing experience just to get there to get that story. What's next? What else are you trying to go cover?

GUPTA: Well we're going to go back. You know I think that the story is not completely told yet. I think the whole -- the whole notion that doctors will continue to take care of people. It's been a longer time than they expected. That's something I've heard from all the doctors. They thought that they might be getting ready to pack their bags and go home by this time. It's been a longer story than they expected. We want to cover, you know, all this detail.

KAGAN: All right. Be safe...

GUPTA: We will...

KAGAN: ... when you go out there.

GUPTA: ... for sure.

KAGAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

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 30, 2003 - 06:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back live to Kuwait City. We're joined now by our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who came here to do medical stories.
Since you've been here, Sanjay, you've certainly found a talent for intercepting missiles and...

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KAGAN: ... that's kind of gotten in the way a little bit of your medical coverage. But now that things have calmed down for a day or two, just get to -- get to the stories that you really wanted to do.

GUPTA: Right. And one of the big stories certainly being the "Devil Docs," a colloquial name for a bunch of Navy doctors who support the Marines. About half of the ones we met reservists, half of them full time military. All of them facing the indescribably esoteric conditions of the desert and operating on all patients that come in, all of them, and doing it successfully.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No one said it would be easy to be a doctor in the desert during war. Surgeons used to modern luxuries are now eating out of brown sealed pouches, sleeping in tents and using the desert as their only bathroom. And during sandstorms, trying simply to keep their precious cargo from crashing to the desert floor, operating in military fatigues and at times, even in gas masks.

Helios flying in, bringing in blowing sand and the newly injured, many of them Iraqi. Nationality makes no difference, the "Devil Docs," an American nickname for the Naval doctors, do not falter. For them, medical and moral obligations do not change, even at time of war. And so surgeons will be soldiers. They carry guns, wear flack jackets and keep their gas masks at the ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, please proceed with surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Proceeding...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Proceed.

GUPTA: This is now their home and they don't know how long they'll be here. And while I report from their makeshift OR, they focus only on the human being in front of them. Scalpels fly, the anesthesia machines hum and all patients move in and out of this operating room in the sand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And one -- a couple of things that really struck me, one is that this operating room that you just saw totally mobile. It can break down in less than an hour and set back up less than hour. Why? So they can move with the troops. And certainly that puts some of these surgeons, some of them reservists, in harm's way as well.

The other thing, Daryn, really about 70 percent of the patients that they saw during the time I was there were Iraqi. And I think that was something that they didn't quite expect. They treat them all the same.

KAGAN: I guess a patient is a patient in their operating table.

GUPTA: That's right. I mean they said to me, one of the things that struck me, medical triage, not political triage is really important to keep that in mind, especially for these doctors out there confronted with these new situations. A lot of these guys general surgeons, they have their own practices back home. First patient that came in was an Iraqi with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. It came right on the heels of a lot of these doctors learning for the first time that four U.S. soldiers had been executed.

KAGAN: You went through quite a harrowing experience just to get there to get that story. What's next? What else are you trying to go cover?

GUPTA: Well we're going to go back. You know I think that the story is not completely told yet. I think the whole -- the whole notion that doctors will continue to take care of people. It's been a longer time than they expected. That's something I've heard from all the doctors. They thought that they might be getting ready to pack their bags and go home by this time. It's been a longer story than they expected. We want to cover, you know, all this detail.

KAGAN: All right. Be safe...

GUPTA: We will...

KAGAN: ... when you go out there.

GUPTA: ... for sure.

KAGAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

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