1st Aid day

1-15-09

Not too much happened today, except for about 5 hours of combat first aid training. The Army expects all Soldiers to have basic knowledge of first aid and life saving skills, especially on the battle field, but the Chaplain is actually expected to play a vital role in this. The reasoning is simple: we are not allowed to carry a weapon, and therefore cannot participate in a gun-fight, so we might as well be useful in combat -- which means helping the medic. Knowing this, we were actually taught how to insert and start an IV today. Yes, you heard that correctly: we all learned how to stick our buddy with an IV needle and hook up and start a saline bag. My former nursing friends would be astonished, because I thought you needed a medical or nursing license to do that! Well, not in the military, I suppose. In fact, they told us that all Soldiers heading out on a combat mission now have an IV line inserted in their arm, capped off, and taped to their skin -- just in case it is needed in the battle! The plastic tip can stay in the vein for 72 hours until it needs to be removed, so they are being proactive and inserting it ahead of time.

We also saw some pretty graphic photos of battle injuries to help us understand the serious nature of combat life saving skills. As some of you know, I used to work in the morgue at a former job, and I still felt some of these photos were pretty disturbing. A number of different medics told us in the training that the two people who are protected the most by the Soldiers are the medic and the Chaplain. So that's good news. I like hearing that!