Flow of injured coalition soldiers from Iraq to Germany doubles
Facial injuries common - flack jackets protect upper body
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By Jukka Luoma in Landstuhl, Germany
The deteriorating situation in Iraq can be seen clearly at the Landstuhl military hospital in Germany, where injured soldiers of the US-led coalition are flown for treatment.
Hospital staff said on Tuesday that the number of patients brought to the hospital had doubled. It was set to be a busy day. By the early afternoon, 38 new patients had already arrived.
Many of them had suffered their injuries on Monday.
The Landstuhl hospital, near the Ramstein air base, has already treated about 10,800 patients evacuated from Iraq, and over 2,300 patients from Afghanistan.
Although most of the patients were injured in accidents, or suffer from an illness, the proportion of those with combat injuries is sharply rising.
The gunshot wound came from a ricocheting bullet, which grazed Corporal Jim Bachelor in the forehead in the Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City in Baghdad on the first day of clashes between supporters of hard-line Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr and coalition forces.
"We knew that there were people there, and we moved carefully, but they got the first shot. I saw the flashes", Bachelor says.
He said that he hopes to get back to his unit soon. "I still have a job to do there", Bachelor says.
Doctors say that the patients are typically happy to be alive, and are also concerned about how their buddies are doing.
Lieutenant David Mayers of the US Marines says that he was glad not to lose his eyesight. He noticed the trip-wires on a street in Fallujah too late.
"I took a step back and the charge exploded at my feet", says Mayers, describing the injury he sustained on Saturday.
Mayers was on patrol in Fallujah checking the papers of passers-by. Nothing in the behaviour of any of the Iraqis who were passing by gave any indication of the booby-trap ahead.
"Fallujah is a very bad place, and there are plenty of really bad people there", Mayers says, describing his experience.
A nurse says that the facial injuries sustained by Mayers and Marine Corporal Joseph Englemeyer, who is in the bed next to him, are quite common. Vests of kevlar fibre provide good protection for the body, but leave the extremities and face exposed.
"I have some vision in my left eye", says Englemeyer. The doctors have said that he would get back most of his eyesight. He still finds it difficult to talk.
Three men in Englemeyer's group were injured when a bomb exploded next to their vehicle in Fallujah on Saturday. "We had turned onto a side street when the explosion came. It's amazing that nobody was killed", Englemeyer says.
Private Jacob Pementel was in the same vehicle, and sustained a more minor injury to his chin. "There were people on the streets just like normal. They probably didn't know anything about the bomb. Those who planted the bombs didn't care about their own people", Pementel said.
Injuries in Iraq hardly even make it into the news any more. Pementel says that incidents like the bomb attack take place in Fallujah "every four hours".
Englemeyer's facial injuries will require treatment in the United States; the conflict in Iraq is over for him. Mayers, for his part, was expecting to return to his unit soon. "I have some business to settle with the guys who set those wires", the lieutenant says.
On Tuesday there were 223 patients in the hospital. The total capacity of 300 beds was not used even during the actual combat phase in Iraq. Some wards were closed after the battles, but one has been opened again.
The busiest day was in August last year when the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was bombed, and 169 new patients came in a single day.
Few stay at the Landstuhl hospital for long. A typical stay is between three to four days, says hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
The hospital's statistics confirm the assessment of Captain Claude Fourroux on the general character of war. He said that when 130,000 soldiers are put somewhere, all kinds of things will happen, even if there is no enemy action.
By the end of February, 9,988 American soldiers had been treated in Landstuhl. Of these, only 930 had been injured in fighting, while 3,212 were hurt in accidents, and 5,846 who had fallen ill.
Most of the injuries from hostile action were caused by bombs.
Mortality among injured US soldiers is much lower in the Iraq war than in previous conflicts. In this war 13.8% of injured soldiers have died of their injuries. In the 1991 Gulf War the rate was 23.9%, and in the Second World War, nearly one in three injured soldiers died.
Colonel Richard Jordan, a doctor and hospital administrator, attributes much of the improvements to the new bulletproof vests, rapid transport, and good first aid training.
"This is a completely different army, compared with the Vietnam War", says Jordan, who has experience from a number of wars. "Ordinary foot soldiers can give the kind of first aid that used to require a medic", he says.
Some of the new patients walked into the Landstuhl hospital from a bus wearing pyjamas and the plastic sandals that they were issued at the massive Ramstein air base a few kilometres away.
"The buddies of some of them managed to pack their things with them, but others did not even have an ID card", says Jordan. With this in mind, the patients are given two uniforms and vouchers worth 280 dollars for purchases at the US Army store.
One of the first to meet the new patients is a military Chaplin, pastor James Milburn, who was called to active duty from the military reserves.
It is always a great shock to be injured in combat, but Milburn says that it is no different from ordinary shock, which he has seen while helping patients at civilian hospitals.
"Life is just very hard now. One of my son's friends was shot while he was in the back seat of my car", Milburn says as he waits for the next busload of patients.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.4.2004
JUKKA LUOMA / Helsingin Sanomat
jukka.luoma@hs.fi
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| 14.4.2004 - THIS WEEK |
 Flow of injured coalition soldiers from Iraq to Germany doubles |
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