Medscape (link requires free registration) has an interview with Col. Cliff Cloonan, MD, chairman of military and emergency medicine at F. Edward H?bert School of Medicine, the military medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. His CV is impressive, and he knows what he’s talking about. His experience is Army, and so’s his jargon, but the medicine is the same (though Navy Corpsmen are better trained than the basic Army medic).
Medscape: Does working in desert conditions while traveling pose unique challenges, such as maintaining a clean field during surgery, or preventing shock in injured patients exposed to extremes of heat and cold?
Col. Cloonan: Most wars are fought in uncomfortable, dirty, nasty environments, but that’s just where we operate. In Korea we had the freezing cold; in Iraq we have the blazing heat and windstorms blowing sand in your eyes. We tend not to fight wars in Hawaii.
I like this, and hope Medscape gets their in-theater doctor/reporter they want.
