Back from life-saving tour in Afghanistan
ON Friday 70 TA medics will return to Ulster after three months saving lives in an Afghanistan field hospital. Their commanding officer, Lt Col IAIN MOLES, tells of how his team saw 55 dead bodies pass through their hospital
WE started our tour knowing that this was going to be a completely different experience from anything in the NHS.
Arriving in Camp Bastion in the middle of July in temperatures in excess of 45 degrees centigrade is a tough time for anyone, but for 204 (North Irish) Field Hospital, who are used to the much more unpredictable weather of Northern Ireland, it was certainly a shock.
Our task was to take over theatres in the state-of-the-art hospital facility in Bastion.
Four theatre nurses and one consultant anaesthetist from the unit formed part of the theatre team which was supplemented by other TA and regular staff.
We found this facility excellent and after spending a couple of days getting used to the set-up it didn't take long to get into the swing of things.
However, the tempo and the number of casualties took everyone by surprise.
On one day we might be dealing with the surgical conditions that affect young soldiers everywhere, such as broken ankles and appendicitis and then moments later be dealing with multiple casualties including traumatic amputations or gunshot wounds to head or chest.
The team has now dealt with such multiple casualties on a regular basis and will return home with a wealth of experience.
Children targeted
The patients we have dealt with include British and coalition troops, but also a large number of local civilians with a depressing number of young children injured in crossfire or even sometimes deliberately targeted.
The retrospective audit of our patients showed a number of unexpected survivors – soldiers whose injuries should have been fatal, but who have lived.
Many of the most seriously injured casualties bypassed the emergency department to come straight to theatre where they were treated by a multi-disciplinary consultant-led team; something that is simply not achievable in most NHS trusts.
Indeed, our remit from HM Government is to deliver the same standard of healthcare as would be delivered in an NHS Trust, and as our teams offer a consultant-delivered, as opposed to consultant-led, service, we surpass this ideal.
We are all desperately proud to have been part of the team which has undoubtedly saved a number of lives.
The fact that we have this facility, the experienced personnel and the ability to get casualties here so quickly has been instrumental in the life-saving care which each casualty receives.
Going home
There has been a steady swell of talk about going home over the past couple of weeks; it started earlier for some than others.
With the new hospital here, I found it easier not to think about the end point until now,.
Most of us have lived, worked, eaten and slept within a 500-metre radius inside Camp Bastion.
The majority of us have lived within this little bubble in a desert in Helmand, an oasis of safety.
That is until a Chinese 107mm rocket landed 70 metres from the hospital two weeks ago.
A Taliban farewell to 204 Field Hospital?
Fortunately it was a damp squib, and fortunately the only such incident in our tour.
A few have been out on the ground and seen a little of what can be a starkly beautiful land, but this has been a working visit and not a tourist opportunity.
There is an overwhelming feeling of having done well; the unit have every right to be proud of their achievements. We have been the busiest hospital on Operation Herrick of any so far.
Over 400 operations, 1,000 emergency department attendances, 246 patients in intensive care/high dependency units, 500 admitted to wards and sadly over 55 deaths, some quite grisly. Still, going home to the NHS will be different, it will lack the cohesion speed and focus of care here, we will be back to waiting lists and trolley waits, targets and deadlines.
The ‘wokka wokka’ of an approaching Chinook helicopter will no longer be the herald of business.
Fat boys return slim
We have run a ‘fat boys’ club with great success, almost without exception we have lost weight, some over two stone – let us hope we are recognised by our wives and families.
The alcohol cessation programme has also been 100 per cent successful and has probably contributed to the weight loss.
Some of the ward staff have even had time to develop splendid tans and most are fitter.
Talk is now of home, Ulster fries, Guinness, who Ulster are playing at Ravenhill and will we be home in time for the next home game. I can’t suppose being long in Ireland before we have had our fill and are thinking fondly of the desert.
We had hoped for a grand arrival in full kit at the George Best Belfast City Airport, but we are likely to arrive by ferry and not in uniform, the overall feeling however will be the quickest route home is the best.
n Lieutenant Colonel Iain Moles is a General Practitioner from Killyleagh
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Weather for Belfast
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
