Study examines effect of being medevaced

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Medevac research
When is it better to stay put?


Study examines effect of being medevaced
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 3, 2008 6:07:24 EDT

Every month, Air Force jets fly dozens of critically wounded troops from makeshift wards in Iraq and Afghanistan to hospitals in Europe and the U.S.

In the most extreme cases, aircraft cargo bays become airborne intensive care units. The assumption is the more quickly a patient is delivered to large medical center, the more likely the patient will survive.

Now, Air Force and civilian doctors are trying to determine if wounded troops would be better off staying at a field hospital in certain situations, rather than being rushed to a hospital far from the combat zone.

“The question is, always, is there something more we can be doing for the guys?” said Col. Warren Dorlac, a trauma surgeon and director of the Air Force’s Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

When a person suffers a severe injury — such a brain injury or heavily bleeding wound — the body mounts its own defenses in addition to what medical teams provide, Dorlac said.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/10/airforce_medical_evac_101308/%2e