The Bastion Way

The New Year is pretty much underway and we are gearing up it seems for upcoming events.  One of the more amazing things that is done here is the resuscitation of the trauma patient from the moment they hit the door.  Well actually it starts even before the patient hits the door in the form of advanced medical transport.  Basically the Brits have developed and invested in a very high level medical air transport system for this Helmand region.  It comprises helicopter transport (a BIG helicopter) combined with high level of medical assets on that: an anesthesiologist or specially trained ER physician and other critical care trained support personnel ie nurses or corpsman.  They can in essence supply Level 2 echelon medical care while en route back to the hospital. What this does is start the clock at resuscitation not when the patient gets to the hospital but when they land and pick up their patient at the incident. They can do most ER interventions and we have seen patients come with bilateral chest tubes, intubated, give drugs like Calcium and TXA and have already received 4 units of prbcs and 4 units of ffp all in a 30 + min flight.  WOW! Pic is of MERT heading off for pick up. Bad pic because we are not really allowed pics of flightline