Sounds like you guys and your medic did an outstanding job.

I'm sorry you lost your teammate.

With the added information, the chest wound becomes my #1 priority, followed by the through and through thigh.

Just messin' with Crip, ma'am. I didn't know you were here. I'll stop now.:o

I would agree.

I was under the impression from your wording Max the soldier with the chest injury was deceased. He would have become my first priority.

On that note, I find it difficult to treat patients sometimes without being able to physically see them and what occurred. This was a good learning tool though.

the residents have a hard enough time remembering the glascow coma score....was hoping for something more interesting....

keep messing around.... James can take it I am sure....

doc t.

Only if I actually observed you knowing something. NOW STOP! Doctor Ma'am is here - no more messin' around.

Are you still going with mental status and respiratory rate for triage?

Thats what I was taught as the primary triage standard for MCI's. Secondary triage is mechanism of injury and pulse rate or B/P.


Mass Casualty Incident, for those that dont know, is defined as any incident where the number of patients is greater than the resouces immediately available to treat their injuries.

Well, in this case, Max has told us that there were seven casualties and one medic. So the medic has to triage. Not to say everybody else wasn't helping, as Max pointed out.

Plus, you have security to worry about. Those little bastards may not be finished.

This is the kind of event that happens.

Max, what's your TO&E for medics? One per platoon? Combat Lifesavers?

One per platoon. Ironically, he wasn't CLS qualified, whereas we had others that were. Unfortunately, most of the CLS guys were the leadership (TLs, SLs, PSG). That day took out 2 SLs, 2 TLs, and the PL. We were hurting for a while.

So basically, whoever could took care of whoever they could using the basics. Eventually (I say that because it seemed like a few minutes, but I was informed later it was possibly almost an hour or more before the QRF got there) our BN PA came on scene, but that was after we'd already gotten the worst guys over to the field hospital.

I apologize, some of the very minute details are still unclear, I was busy trying to engage any targets and having to move my Humvee all over the place when they tried to reorganize security, etc.

Don't worry about the details. Completely understandable.

That's one medic to every 40 or so. The event took out most of the leadership and along with it the CLS. Very Murphy's Law. And very the reason SF Teams cross train so much.

Sounds like you guys did very well, as US soldiers are known to do.

Glad to have been of help. Anything I can do to help current/future medics. I view it as an investment in the future, never know when I may need one. Take care guys. Let me know if you want any more details on this or any of the other cases.

Thank you Max Power. From the sounds of things you guys did great.

Is one medic per platoon standard army wide? I ask because it sounds like the Medics are spread way too thin at least in combat. Sounds like maybe Mother Army needs to follow suit with Ranger Regiment and have an EMT-B+ per squad.

Thanks again Max.