US surgeons step up to help British allies

Seems appropriate to have this up today, given who my Every Day Hero is. As you all must know, there have been heavy casualties in the Afghanistan arena of this Global War on Terror. (Yes, I will always call it is what IS!) This excellent article proves - not that we need further proof, but still - that this GWOT is a joint mission with many allies working together. Read on:

From The Times

July 31, 2009

US surgeons drafted in as British medics exhausted by casualty surge

(Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)

A surgeon at work in Camp Bastion field hospital: 157 wounded arrived for treatment in one week

Michael Evans, Defence Editor

The surge in British casualties in Afghanistan has left military surgeons so exhausted that a US surgical team has been drafted in to help.

The British doctors have also been overwhelmed with casualties from other nations, including US Marines, Afghan troops and civilians.

Extra British plastic surgeons have had to be sent to the field hospital at Camp Bastion in central Helmand along with additional X-ray technicians and specialist nurses.

The Ministry of Defence revealed that 57 soldiers had been wounded in action in the first two weeks of this month, the worst casualty figure since British troops deployed to Helmand province in 2006. The previous highest toll of those injured, 46, was in June — but that was for the whole month. In the same two-week period, 15 soldiers were killed.

Of the 57 wounded in action, nine were categorised as “very seriously injured” with life-threatening wounds, and seven were “seriously injured”.

In one week alone this month, 157 wounded people were brought to the Bastion field hospital for treatment, although they were not all British. The toll was recorded during Operation Panther’s Claw, launched on June 19 to sweep the Taleban out of central Helmand.

Surgeon Rear-Admiral Lionel Jarvis, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (health), said: “Because of exhaustion among our surgeons and the very long hours that they were working, we talked to our coalition colleagues and a surgical team from one of the US facilities has moved temporarily down to reinforce the facility in Bastion.”...

There is more and you can find that here.

H/T to Sylvia