UPDATE:: Number of Wounded in Action on Rise

[Guest guest]

I had mentioned earlier there is never any mention of the wounded coming out

of Iraq, a reader sent me this ...

 

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: Number of Wounded in Action on Rise

 

 

> Number of Wounded in Action on Rise

> Tuesday, September 2, 2003

> Washington Post

>

> Number of Wounded in Action on Rise

> by Vernon Loeb

> http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0902-01.htm

>

> U.S. battlefield casualties in Iraq are increasing dramatically in the

face

> of continued attacks by remnants of Saddam Hussein's military and other

> forces, with almost 10 American troops a day now being officially declared

> " wounded in action. "

> The number of those wounded in action, which totals 1,124 since the war

> began in March, has grown so large, and attacks have become so

commonplace,

> that U.S. Central Command usually issues news releases listing injuries

only

> when the attacks kill one or more troops. The result is that many injuries

> go unreported.

> The rising number and quickening pace of soldiers being wounded on the

> battlefield have been overshadowed by the number of troops killed since

> President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1. But

> alongside those Americans killed in action, an even greater toll of

> battlefield wounded continues unabated, with an increasing number being

> injured through small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades,

> remote-controlled mines and what the Pentagon refers to as " improvised

> explosive devices. "

> Indeed, the number of troops wounded in action in Iraq is now more than

> twice that of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The total increased more than

35

> percent in August -- with an average of almost 10 troops a day injured

last

> month.

> Fifty-five Americans were wounded in action last week alone, pushing the

> number of troops wounded in action since May 1 beyond the number wounded

> during peak fighting. From March 19 to April 30, 550 U.S. troops were

> wounded in action in Iraq. Since May 1, the number totals 574. The number

of

> troops killed in Iraq since the beginning of May already has surpassed the

> total killed during the height of the war.

> Pentagon officials point to advances in military medicine as one of the

> reasons behind the large number of wounded soldiers; many lives are being

> saved on the battlefield that in past conflicts would have been lost. But

> the rising number of casualties also reflects the resistance that U.S.

> forces continue to meet nearly five months after Hussein was ousted from

> power.

> Although Central Command keeps a running total of the wounded, it releases

> the number only when asked -- making the combat injuries of U.S. troops in

> Iraq one of the untold stories of the war.

> With no fanfare and almost no public notice, giant C-17 transport jets

> arrive virtually every night at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington,

> on medical evacuation missions. Since the war began, more than 6,000

service

> members have been flown back to the United States. The number includes the

> 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received non-hostile injuries in vehicle

> accidents and other mishaps, and thousands who became physically or

mentally

> ill.

> " Our nation doesn't know that, " said Susan Brewer, president and founder

of

> America's Heroes of Freedom, a nonprofit organization that collects

clothing

> and other personal items for the returning troops. " Sort of out of sight

and

> out of mind. "

> On Thursday night, a C-17 arrived at Andrews with 44 patients from Iraq.

> Ambulances arrived to take the most seriously wounded to the nation's two

> premier military hospitals, Water Reed Army Medical Center in Washington

and

> the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Dozens of others stayed

> overnight at what the Air Force calls a contingency aeromedical staging

> facility, which has taken over an indoor tennis club and an adjacent

> community center.

> On Friday morning, smaller C-130 transports began arriving to take the

> walking wounded and less seriously injured to their home bases, from Fort

> Bragg in North Carolina to Fort Lewis in Washington state. Another C-17

was

> due in Friday night from Germany, with 12 patients on stretchers, 24

listed

> on the flight manifest as ambulatory and nine other passengers, either

> family members or escorts.

> " That's going to fill us right back up by the end of today, " said Lt. Col.

> Allen Delaney, who commands the staging center. Eighty-six members of his

> reserve unit, the 459th Aeromedical Staging Squadron, based at Andrews,

were

> called up for a year in April to run what is essentially a medical air

> terminal, the nation's hub, for war wounded from Iraq.

> At Walter Reed, a half-hour drive from Andrews, Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley,

> the hospital's commanding general, said there were only two days in July

and

> four in August that the hospital did not admit soldiers injured in Iraq.

> " The orthopedic surgeons are very busy, and the nursing services are very

> busy, both in the intensive care units and on the wards, " he said,

> explaining that there have been five or six instances in recent months

when

> all of the hospital's 40 intensive care beds have been filled -- mostly

with

> battlefield wounded.

> Kiley said rocket-propelled grenades and mines can wound multiple troops

at

> a time and cause " the kind of amputating damage that you don't necessarily

> see with a bullet wound to the arm or leg. "

> The result has been large numbers of troops coming back to Walter Reed and

> National Naval Medical with serious blast wounds and arms and legs that

have

> been amputated, either in Iraq or at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in

> Germany, where virtually all battlefield casualties are treated and

> stabilized.

> " A few of us started volunteering [at Walter Reed] as amputees in 1991,

and

> this is the most we've seen ever, " said Jim Mayer, a double amputee from

the

> Vietnam War who works at the Veterans Administration. " I've never seen

> anything like this. But I haven't seen anybody not get good care. "

> Kiley said that Walter Reed has 600 physicians and 350 physicians in

> training, plus reservists and the ability to bring in more nurses if

> necessary. The hospital " could go on from an operational perspective

> indefinitely -- we have a lot of capacity, " he said. The hospital has

> treated 1,100 patients from the war, including 228 battlefield casualties.

> National Naval Medical Center was most severely stressed during the major

> combat phase of the war, said Capt. Michael J. Krentz, its deputy

commander.

> During that period, 800 of the hospital's medical professionals -- a third

> of its regular staff and half its military staff -- deployed overseas to

the

> USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship. The hospital called up 600 reservists

to

> replace them.

> Before the fall of Baghdad in April, the hospital had 40 patients a

night --

> mostly Marines -- from Iraq. Now the number is down to three, since the

> Marines have begun departing and will soon hand peacekeeping duties in

their

> area south of Baghdad to multinational forces.

> " Taking care of returning casualties is our number one job -- that's why

> we're here, " Krentz said. " That's our sworn duty, and it's our honor to do

> so. "

> Kiley and Krentz said high-tech body armor and state-of-the-art

battlefield

> medical procedures are keeping more seriously wounded soldiers alive than

> ever before.

> Krentz said advanced radiological equipment aboard the Comfort enabled

> doctors to spot internal injuries and operate much sooner than they might

> have otherwise been able to, preventing fatalities. In fact, he said,

> patients had been stabilized so well overseas that there were no deaths of

> returning service members at Bethesda.

> Kiley said he had seen several cases in which soldiers had been operated

on

> in the field so quickly that doctors managed to save limbs that might

> otherwise have been lost. " But it's a long haul even when they do preserve

> limbs, " he said.

>

> © 2003 The Washington Post Company

>