MSNBC has a article from a forward Army CASH (Combat Army Surgical Hospital). Medical coverage is always fairly bland, short on facts due to patient confidentiality concerns and the inevitable compromises that access to privileged information entails. Add to that the wartime inability to tell the ‘who, where, when’ and what you get is what’s left: emotion and generalities. But it’s still worth reading.
a Marine arrived, beyond help. Other marines are brought in. The word is they started out as victims of an accident and then were ambushed while in the ambulance on their way to the hospital.
But by the twisted logic of this war, the Marine?s Iraqi attackers are not far behind. From enemy to POWs to patients, Marines say 12 hours earlier these Iraqis were shooting at them.
?This is war,? says one medic. ?They come to the same place to be patched up. It?s kind of like a time out.?
It?s an old saying about war: Rule number one is people die. Rule number two is that doctors can?t change rule number one.
There hasn’t been much reporting of the excellent military medical system, and that’s too bad. They have a very tough job and they do it well.
