Well....

Well we’re at that stage of the deployment where we’ve seen just about all there is to see in trauma. Been there done that, got the blood on the shoes! Now that I’ve said that we’ll probably get something really freaky in! haha. We are on track to destroy the July record that we set, hopefully we don’t break it, we don’t want to see people get hurt. We had a conversation with a father of one of our child patients (pictured), through the interpreter. He lost 3 sons and a daughter and is at the hospital with his remaining son. The conversation left me with a warm feeling, he said that he now sees that the coalition forces are here to help and not hurt the people of Afghanistan. We have done multiple surgeries on his son who has lost his left arm and had some chest injuries that have since healed. You could tell by just the body language the tremendous loss that the father has suffered and how much he loves his remaining child. It’s really sad to see the suffering that the Taliban has brought to this region. Hopefully this push will eliminate all Taliban presence in the area, hell hopefully all the Taliban everywhere will be gone by the time we leave!
Shayna is doing great after her second surgery and has completed the last adjustments on her external fixator on her left leg. She had x-rays done on her right leg and if all is well she’ll be having that removed by the end of this month. Can’t wait to see those legs! Haha.
We have 5 paydays to go. Time has really flown by and hopefully it will continue to. In a couple of weeks I’m going to go to Qatar to enjoy some time off, looking forward to that. They have a lot of trips that you can take but all I’m really interested in is not carrying my weapon, getting some golf in, and laying by the pool! I should have plenty of pictures to post after that trip, probably one of me breaking a club in half after another great shot into the sand, water or woods!
CASES:
10 AUG: 1. Face washout, tracheotomy. 2. Washout right buttock. 3. Washout right buttock, wound vac placement. 4. Wisdom teeth extraction. 5. Removal of hardware right ankle.
11 AUG: 1. Craniotomy.
12 AUG: 1. Open reduction internal fixation zygo and orbital fractures. 2. Abdominal abscess drainage. 3. Removal of wound vac and closure of wound. 4. Dressing change on 30% burn patient. 5. Washout of left arm amputation, wound vac placement, closure of chest wound. 6. Washout right arm, wound vac placement. 7. Craniotomy.
14 AUG: 1. Left arm amputation washout and closure. 2. Exploratory lap, I&d. 3. Removal of IO needle from chest. 4. Trache. 5. Exploratory lap. 6. Left lower extremity external fixation and fasciotomy. 7. Washout right arm, amputation of thumb, closure of head wound. 8. Closure of bilateral calc fractures, left lower extremity external fixation. 9. Washout left foot.
Shayna I love and miss you very much, hang in there it’s almost over for both of us! Everyone else take care and keep in touch.
Dave