Dan
04-24-2006, 06:26
Kevin has done a lot of good articles in our community
Special Forces medics undergo rigorous training
By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer
RICHMOND, Va. — The shift's first emergency call crackled over the fire station's P.A. system just before 9 in the morning: a possible heart attack in the Richmond suburbs.
Sgt. Chris Meeker, a Special Forces soldier from Fort Bragg, jumped into an ambulance with a paramedic from Henrico County. They raced to the woman's house and took her to the hospital. Another call came quickly - a cleaning woman had swallowed bleach. She didn't want to go to the hospital, so Meeker and the paramedic treated her at home.
Meeker was working a 24-hour shift and it was busy. It was just what he needed - he is learning to be a medic.
By the time he was rolling out on ambulance calls in Richmond, he had already made it through two phases of training. In the first - selection - he survived a rigorous weeding-out process to pick the men best suited to wear the Green Beret. Then came five weeks of combat skills training that all Special Forces soldiers go through.
He is now almost halfway through the one-year medic program for one of the toughest Special Forces specialties. His training covers everything from treating gunshot wounds to veterinary medicine.
During the 20th week in the course, students are sent to hospitals in Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., or Richmond for hands-on training. The four-week clinical rotation is required to complete the nationally accredited paramedic program.
The students serve as medics in the emergency room and on ambulances. They also work in some of the hospital’s other departments, including the wards that handle burns and brain injuries.
The goal is to get the soldiers as much experience as possible and give them the confidence to treat everything from severe wounds or injuries to an Afghan villager's cough.
Observing the veterans
Meeker, who is 35, joined the Army to become a Special Forces medic. He had finished a tour in the Air Force and was attending a seminary in Pittsburgh when a friend told him that the Special Forces was taking recruits directly into its training program. He joined the West Virginia National Guard and was selected.
In Richmond, Meeker was nervous on each call because the civilian paramedics were observing. But he said he could see the training paying off.
He said watching some of the senior civilian paramedics calm a patient had been helpful.
"The biggest thing I've learned is how to walk up to a patient and be personable," he said.
Sgt. 1st Class James Kaltenbaugh coordinates the Special Forces training at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in downtown Richmond. He said the pressure that Meeker felt helps build good medics.
"It is good to feel pressure," he said. "If one guy goes down on a team, you are going to have everybody around you saying, 'Come on, Doc.'"
Once his training is complete, Meeker will join a 12-man A-team - the basic operational unit of Special Forces. He could be the only available medical care for his teammates in the field.
By the time the student medics reach the hospital phase, they have had a lot of medical knowledge poured into their heads quickly. Maj. Alan Davis, the officer in charge of the Special Operations Combat Medic Course, said that in 30 days the students cover a lot of the ground that is the curriculum in the first two years of medical school.
Meanwhile, the medic trainees have also practiced treating trauma injuries on each other. Sometimes they mimic how they would treat an injury. Other things they do for real, such as starting IVs on one another.
The simulations stop after the 20th week. When the students arrive at the hospital or the firehouse, they are expected to perform.
12-hour shifts
Sgt. 1st Class Jason Strominger's patient was 50 years older than the soldiers he’s likely to be treating when he gets to a team.
Hardy Nance, a frail 86-year-old man, sat in the hospital bed. He was dazed, with a large gash over his right eye.
Wearing gloves and a protective mask over his mouth and eyes, Strominger flushed the wound with water before helping a doctor stitch it up.
This was Strominger's second week working in the emergency department at the VCU Medical Center. The students work 12-hour shifts six days a week.
During his 12-hour shifts, he also took blood and started IVs. Before he leaves in a month, he’ll have completed more advanced procedures, including starting chest tubes and delivering babies.
"Its good training," Strominger said. "It takes a lot of stuff out of the books and makes it hands-on."
There are 11 soldiers on the rotation in Richmond. The medical center is the main trauma center in the area - giving the medic trainees plenty to see. The hospital caters to poor people and those without insurance.
In the first six hours of Strominger's shift, several patients were shuttled into the trauma treatment rooms. Each time, doctors found one of the three student medics in the emergency department to show them advanced procedures.
On one day alone, the three students in the emergency room cleaned a head wound, helped suture a man's wrist, took blood, started IVs and assisted on several trauma cases.
"Our goal here is to provide them with the experience they can use in the field," said Dr. Stein Bronsky, an emergency medicine resident.
He spent a few weeks at Fort Bragg in the medics' initial training. He said it gave him a lot of confidence in what they would do in the emergency department.
Spc. Josh Tarsky, a 30-year-old recruit, said seeing the variety of injuries and diseases is valuable training since most of the medics’ patients won't be 18- to 30-year-old commandos. They are going to treat villagers and the soldiers of the foreign armies the Special Forces trains.
"Doing this job is like a backstage pass to every room in the hospital," he said.
Staff writer Kevin Maurer can be reached at maurerk@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3587.
Special Forces medics undergo rigorous training
By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer
RICHMOND, Va. — The shift's first emergency call crackled over the fire station's P.A. system just before 9 in the morning: a possible heart attack in the Richmond suburbs.
Sgt. Chris Meeker, a Special Forces soldier from Fort Bragg, jumped into an ambulance with a paramedic from Henrico County. They raced to the woman's house and took her to the hospital. Another call came quickly - a cleaning woman had swallowed bleach. She didn't want to go to the hospital, so Meeker and the paramedic treated her at home.
Meeker was working a 24-hour shift and it was busy. It was just what he needed - he is learning to be a medic.
By the time he was rolling out on ambulance calls in Richmond, he had already made it through two phases of training. In the first - selection - he survived a rigorous weeding-out process to pick the men best suited to wear the Green Beret. Then came five weeks of combat skills training that all Special Forces soldiers go through.
He is now almost halfway through the one-year medic program for one of the toughest Special Forces specialties. His training covers everything from treating gunshot wounds to veterinary medicine.
During the 20th week in the course, students are sent to hospitals in Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., or Richmond for hands-on training. The four-week clinical rotation is required to complete the nationally accredited paramedic program.
The students serve as medics in the emergency room and on ambulances. They also work in some of the hospital’s other departments, including the wards that handle burns and brain injuries.
The goal is to get the soldiers as much experience as possible and give them the confidence to treat everything from severe wounds or injuries to an Afghan villager's cough.
Observing the veterans
Meeker, who is 35, joined the Army to become a Special Forces medic. He had finished a tour in the Air Force and was attending a seminary in Pittsburgh when a friend told him that the Special Forces was taking recruits directly into its training program. He joined the West Virginia National Guard and was selected.
In Richmond, Meeker was nervous on each call because the civilian paramedics were observing. But he said he could see the training paying off.
He said watching some of the senior civilian paramedics calm a patient had been helpful.
"The biggest thing I've learned is how to walk up to a patient and be personable," he said.
Sgt. 1st Class James Kaltenbaugh coordinates the Special Forces training at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in downtown Richmond. He said the pressure that Meeker felt helps build good medics.
"It is good to feel pressure," he said. "If one guy goes down on a team, you are going to have everybody around you saying, 'Come on, Doc.'"
Once his training is complete, Meeker will join a 12-man A-team - the basic operational unit of Special Forces. He could be the only available medical care for his teammates in the field.
By the time the student medics reach the hospital phase, they have had a lot of medical knowledge poured into their heads quickly. Maj. Alan Davis, the officer in charge of the Special Operations Combat Medic Course, said that in 30 days the students cover a lot of the ground that is the curriculum in the first two years of medical school.
Meanwhile, the medic trainees have also practiced treating trauma injuries on each other. Sometimes they mimic how they would treat an injury. Other things they do for real, such as starting IVs on one another.
The simulations stop after the 20th week. When the students arrive at the hospital or the firehouse, they are expected to perform.
12-hour shifts
Sgt. 1st Class Jason Strominger's patient was 50 years older than the soldiers he’s likely to be treating when he gets to a team.
Hardy Nance, a frail 86-year-old man, sat in the hospital bed. He was dazed, with a large gash over his right eye.
Wearing gloves and a protective mask over his mouth and eyes, Strominger flushed the wound with water before helping a doctor stitch it up.
This was Strominger's second week working in the emergency department at the VCU Medical Center. The students work 12-hour shifts six days a week.
During his 12-hour shifts, he also took blood and started IVs. Before he leaves in a month, he’ll have completed more advanced procedures, including starting chest tubes and delivering babies.
"Its good training," Strominger said. "It takes a lot of stuff out of the books and makes it hands-on."
There are 11 soldiers on the rotation in Richmond. The medical center is the main trauma center in the area - giving the medic trainees plenty to see. The hospital caters to poor people and those without insurance.
In the first six hours of Strominger's shift, several patients were shuttled into the trauma treatment rooms. Each time, doctors found one of the three student medics in the emergency department to show them advanced procedures.
On one day alone, the three students in the emergency room cleaned a head wound, helped suture a man's wrist, took blood, started IVs and assisted on several trauma cases.
"Our goal here is to provide them with the experience they can use in the field," said Dr. Stein Bronsky, an emergency medicine resident.
He spent a few weeks at Fort Bragg in the medics' initial training. He said it gave him a lot of confidence in what they would do in the emergency department.
Spc. Josh Tarsky, a 30-year-old recruit, said seeing the variety of injuries and diseases is valuable training since most of the medics’ patients won't be 18- to 30-year-old commandos. They are going to treat villagers and the soldiers of the foreign armies the Special Forces trains.
"Doing this job is like a backstage pass to every room in the hospital," he said.
Staff writer Kevin Maurer can be reached at maurerk@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3587.