Quote:
Originally posted by The Reaper
The former.
The percentages increase as the number of thoracic wounds decrease.
TR
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Agreed. What I don't have are armor hits that didn't cause a "wound". The Colombian contractor that was KIAd (a friend) was, from what I was told, shot in the head while sitting in a vehicle. Now that may have been because that was the visible target or because they thought he was wearing armor (I don't know if he was or not).
I am making a semi-educated guess here, but I would imagine armor is causing overall survivability to go up, with a corresponding increase in extremity wounds, amputations, etc. This is not a bad thing. You can live a long and productive life without a leg, people do it everyday.
The other thing that is impacting I think are the tactics. Roadside IEDs causing different injuries, in some cases, than one might normally think of on a battlefield. But this is not new. Ambushes in Vietnam, I read somwhere that most casualties in WWII were caused by artillery fire (I don't know if that's right), etc.
I'm not sure the hadjis are "aiming" for extremities due to body armor, from what I have been told, most of them are not competent enough to do that and as Reaper said, not for discussion on an open board.
What interests me, as a medic is:
1. Armor is here to stay
2. What does armor change in regards to the most likely wounds given a particular tactic
3. How will the armor change wound characteristics
4. What special considerations will TX a PT with armor imply
For example, despite the movies, a round to the armor over the heart can cause significant blunt trauma, tamponade, etc. I know of one case where an SF soldier was hit in the chest with a pistol round, was fine, and crashed later. He survived, but it was not looking good for a while. That implies to me that despite appearances, they may not really be fine afterall. I'd hate to have a teammate survive a GSW only to go south on me later.
We may have a completely unstudied trauma as well. High speed MVA accidents where all victims are wearing armor. We have studies out the ying yang of MVAs, but with armor? What will having your vehicle flip over while wearing IBA change in regard to wounds, if anything? What about helo crashes? Can we expect more seatbelt-type injuries to the abdomen/lower back where the armor breaks on the body?
Anybody care to hazard a guess as to why so many FXd spines are around L5 on HALO jumps? I have my own theory (based on first hand knowledge).
These are the kinds of thoughts I am hoping to provoke.
Just thinking out loud.