Home » Archives » "300 medical soldiers back home from Iraq"

300 medical soldiers back home from Iraq

Oct-27-2006 » Filed Under: General Military

Welcome home to the 47th Combat Support Hospital that spent the past year caring for soldiers in Mosul. Video included.

By Keith Eldridge, KOMO News

FORT LEWIS - A big welcome home for the 300 soldiers who've been saving lives in Iraq. They are the doctors, nurses, medics and staff members of the 47th Combat Support Hospital at Fort Lewis.

They're finally home after a year in the midst of the conflict.

Sgt. Amber Duvall holding son is asked, "How tough is it being away from him like that?" "It was hard, but it's over," he answered.

The Combat Support Hospital handled more than 900 lifesaving emergency operations, 2,300 surgeries and 6,800 emergency room situations.

They handled everything from roadside bomb injuries, gunshot wounds and vehicle accident victims.

Because of the speed with which the injured are delivered to the hospital, they we're able to save 96% of the patients who otherwise would have died.

"The saying is that if you can get somebody to the Army CSH within an hour, chances are they will survive. We proved it over and over that that was the case," says unit commander Col. Jim Polo.

There were some tough calls to make, especially when they had an Iraqi insurgent who needed medical treatment along with a U.S. soldier. How they made that decision to go to the Iraqi insurgent if he was more critically injured.


Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by a site administrator before your comment will appear. We appreciate your patience.)

Advertisements