Duke in Iraq - June 25

Warning, a bit graphic but needed:

I will be completely honest with you. Working with the wounded day after day is starting to affect me. I first noticed it when I went to clear a patient for flight who had been in a tank accident. He had just come back from surgery. A tank tread had hit him in the chest shoulder and head. His scapula, the shoulder blade bone, was broke in half. This is very rare and indicates severe trauma. His right chest was called a flail chest which means that as he tried to inhale that part would not move because of the multiple broken ribs. Those were his minor injuries compared to his back and head. His 1st lumber vertebrae was split in half and he would most likely be a paraplegic. He had at least two fractures of his cervical vertebrae. But worst of all the neurosurgeon was forced to take off half of his skull and the entire left side of his brain would probably not function again. I had seen really bad trauma before, what made this one different? First, he looked like a grown up version of my almost 17 y/o son. Secondly, his commander asked me what he should tell his wife. With those issues, I was fully hit with the weight of the news that this unsuspecting wife was about to receive. There was not an easy way to sugar coat his injuries and the team wasn’t even sure whether he could survive the head injury. The commander wanted to know if he should get the wife to Germany or if he was only going to stay a few hours in Germany before being flown to the US and should she wait for her husband there. He also asked to be kept in the loop in case the soldier needed to be medically retired if his death looked eminent. The military will often medically retire a soldier who is about to die from a medical condition that way the family is entitled to benefits for the rest of their life. During this time as I looked on the broken masterpiece of God, I was to the point of tears. I am never sure when a patient will really affect me . or why they do, but this soldier did. And they are affecting me more and more. I will give you a brief partial look through my eyes over the last 48 hours so you can visualize and pray for the hurting over here.

Man with both arms blown off and lungs badly damaged by the blast

Five girls all with severe burns when their truck was hit by a suicide bomber carrying a propane tank. Four of the five were on ventilators due to inhaling hot gas into their lungs.

Man with a gun shot wound the bullet entered his hip and exited through his opposite chest on a ventilator

Man hit by an IED, shrapnel hit his neck damaging vessels and other structures, he now has a tracheostomy and on a ventilator

Female who was hit by an IED, spleen was badly damaged and needed to be removed, right diaphragm was destroyed, multiple injuries to her intestines, lungs badly damaged and was barely surviving on the ventilator

Man driving a truck and someone through a large rock which broke the windshield and crushed his face

So what will I do now that after two months I feel the all of the injured are starting to affect me. I have two choices: I could become callus and choose not to feel or I could encourage myself in God’s word

“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast of my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for in the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galations 6:9

I will choose to be encouraged by God’s word and let tears come as they may.

Soli Deo Gloria

More thoughts to come

Posted by Tim at June 26, 2005 09:15 PM