The Trauma Czar

The Washington Post ran a piece last week on the Trauma Czar at Bagram Air Field, or BAF as it is known in theater.  The article was brought to our attention in a recent edition of Stars And Stripes.  The gist of the article is how medical research is done in theater and what changes in clinical practice might result but it opened by lauding this young surgeon.  It is interesting to observe how the wheels of PR roll.

The air force major in the article is characterized as the trauma czar.  Often clinical guidelines are produced by the big theater hospitals like BAF without much input from 'down range.'  Then they wind up being treated more like protocols to be followed in that uniquely military top-down fashion.  Now at the risk of diminishing his accomplishments, which I don't intend, and at sounding like sour grapes, I want to point out the experience of our team.  Ted, our OIC, is on his third combat zone deployment as a trauma surgeon, while Paul, our medical director, is on his second.  They represent a wealth of experience in the field of trauma damage control surgery.  But we are a small team in a remote area of the country.  The Washington Post hasn't made it out to us.  Neither has this major.  My point is that what is printed in the press (and for that matter, blogs such as this one) usually only tell part of the story.   So allow me to toot our horn and leave it at that.

In other news, today, the 5th of January is exactly six months since the 5th of July, the day most of us left home.  We still have two and half months to go but are getting closer to homecoming.  There is light at the end of the tunnel.