February3, 2007:
The activation of hundreds of reservists for service in Iraq and
Afghanistan has led to the army adopting a large number of new tools and
techniques. That's because many of the reservists work in emergency services
(fire, police and ambulance) as civilians, and have better ideas about how to deal
with medical emergencies. The combat in Iraq involves a lot of damaged vehicles
(from roadside bombs). Car wrecks (from collisions) are a staple of life for
civilian emergency workers. The military normally does not have to deal with as
many wrecks, so the reservist emergency began to use their non-military tools
and techniques. For example, emergency workers have a heavy duty cutter they
use to quickly slice through seat belts of accident victims. These items cost
about $25, and the troops are buying them with their own money. Firemen have
also made the infantry aware of the specialized tools used for "breaking and
entering" during fires. These various items, which look like medieval pole
arms, have been adopted by many infantry units for raids, or just smashing
their way through doors and wreckage while street fighting.
Reservist
medical personnel have also brought with them lots of techniques the military
medics and doctors did not have in their playbook, or tool kit. One of the more
unusual tools was a tuning fork, which can be used very accurately to find out
if a bone is broken. The reservist medical technicians also have some new
techniques for using standard equipment, like bandages, medical instruments and
stretchers.
All
this will improve American battlefield medicine for generations to come. Not
just the new techniques, but the realization that civilian emergency medicine
is always very active, always "at war", and thus always innovating and
evolving. Even before 2003, there were some attempts by military medical
practitioners to pick up skills from the civilian side of emergency care. Now,
because of the Iraq experience, it's clear to all that to ignore civilian
emergency medicine in the future is a big mistake.