Showing posts with label wounded civilian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wounded civilian. Show all posts

Friday, April 17, 2009

31,000 Wounded Civilian Workers Fight For Care

The biggest secret about Iraq and Afghanistan has been the civilians deployed with the troops. When they are wounded or killed, no one ever counts them as the price of either occupation.
According to ICasualties.org, as of today Reported Deaths: 4274 in Iraq from the US alone and a total of 4,592. Afghanistan has coalition forces deaths at 1,133, 678 were US forces.
Would people still be talking about the low death counts if they had to add in the contractors? Begin with adding 1,400 and then add in 31,000 wounded.

Wounded Civilian Workers Fight For Care
AIG, Other Insurers Routinely Deny Medical Claims Of Contractors Injured In Iraq, And Afghanistan, Probe Finds

April 17, 2009


(CBS) Much has been written about the struggle of U.S. veterans to get the proper care from the military's V.A. hospitals, but another class of returnees from the battlefront is facing similar difficulties obtaining care for injuries sustained in the war zone: civilian contract employees who suffered wounds while supporting the military's war efforts.

In an alarming article co-written by T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times, insurance companies responsible (under taxpayer-funded policies) for the treatment of civilian workers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are reportedly routinely denying medical claims for basic care, as well as artificial limbs, psychological counseling and other services.

The same companies - primarily American International Group (AIG) - reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from these insurance policies.

At least 31,000 civilians have been injured while providing support services to the military and U.S. State Department. More than 1,400 have died.

Injured Iraq war veterans have sued the Department of Veterans Affairs claiming they were denied timely services for medical and mental health problems.

Meanwhile, the military struggles to cope with soldiers who come home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which affects one in five service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

But unlike veterans who are provided with care by the military, the civilian wounded have to go it alone - battling a federally-run insurance system that is laden with high costs and delays.
go here for more
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/national/main4951906.shtml

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

French army chief quits after soldier shoots 17 people

French army chief quits after soldier shoots 17 people
Posted 3 hours 37 minutes ago

The French army chief of staff has resigned two days after a soldier injured 17 people when he mistakenly opened fire with live ammunition during a display at an army base, the presidency said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed severe punishment following the shooting, which took place as hundreds of people watched a mock hostage rescue operation near the south-western city of Carcassonne.

"The president of the republic, head of the armed forces, has accepted the offer of resignation by General Bruno Cuche, chief of staff of the army," Mr Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

"This powerful gesture follows the tragedy that occurred last Sunday in Carcassonne," it said.

Fifteen bystanders including five children were shot during the display as were two soldiers. A three-year-old boy was in serious condition after taking bullets in the heart and in the arm.

The 28-year-old sergeant who fired the shots from his assault rifle was being held in custody and was expected to be charged with causing unintentional injury.

The sergeant has been described as an experienced soldier with no history of psychological problems.
go here for more
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/01/2291444.htm?section=justin

Friday, May 30, 2008

War-zone nurses put their skills on the front line

Sunday, May 25, 2008
Angels of the battlefield

War-zone nurses put their skills on the front line

By Andi Esposito TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
aesposito@telegram.com


Severely injured with a tunneling wound through his liver, the Marine lay sedated, clinging to life, in the intensive care unit at the 399th Combat Support Hospital in Al Asad, Iraq, under the care of U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Melinda A. Nekervis of Sterling.

“He ended up getting well over 100 different blood products,” said Lt. Nekervis, a soft-spoken Army ICU and flight nurse who returned in October from Mosul and Al Asad, Iraq. When everything but whole blood was exhausted, Lt. Nekervis asked if the Marines keeping vigil would donate their own.

“They were more than willing to do that,” she said. “We transfused the buddies’ blood into the patient. It was quite a moving experience. We were very lucky not to lose him. He was pretty sick. They had to do surgery right at the bedside, and he survived.”


Stabilized, the Marine was later sent to Germany aboard an Air Force medical evacuation flight.

“I know that the doctors, from the extent of his injuries, didn’t know if he would make it and what his deficits would be,” said Lt. Nekervis, 32, who in civilian life is a registered nurse working in intensive care at UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus.

“I had him for four long days,” she said. “I will never forget him, but he will never remember me.”

Military nurses in Iraq and Afghanistan are a critical link in a chain of medical care that has enabled more soldiers to survive injury than ever before in the nation’s history of warfare. In World War II, about 30 percent of soldiers died from wounds, a rate that fell to 24 percent in the Vietnam War. Since the start of combat seven years ago in Afghanistan, and since 2003 in Iraq, more than 32,000 service members have been wounded in action. Statistics recently released by the Department of Defense show that 4,579 have been killed in action or died under non-hostile conditions during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

But the survivability rate — the portion of people dying from wounds on these fronts — has fallen to about 10 percent.

“We are doing such a good job saving soldiers that there is a much higher rate of survival,” said Col. Andrea J. Wallen, chairperson of the Department of Nursing at Worcester State College and chief nurse with the 804th Medical Brigade at Devens, which oversees the 399th and 12 other medical units.

Nurses and military medical experts say the survival rate is higher because soldiers wear more and better equipment, and because medical help has been pushed closer to the battlefront and dispersed into smaller teams reaching more locations. More people are being trained in lifesaving procedures, specifically in response to trauma; surgery is done earlier; and better communication has allowed medical equipment and supplies to be quickly sent where needed.

But most important is the speed at which the wounded are attended.

People are moved in record time by helicopters, aircraft and specially fitted flying hospitals — in C-17s and KC-135s — to higher-level or more specialized care in Germany and the United States, including Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, known for its burn center.

“The goal was to get the critically injured to Landstuhl (Regional Medical Center) in Germany within 72 hours,” said Lt. Nekervis, who also logged 50 hours of retrieving and nursing the wounded aboard a Blackhawk helicopter medevac air ambulance and earned a Bronze Star Medal for her service.

Much as Civil War soldiers called Oxford’s Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, “angel of the battlefield” for care she gave the injured in makeshift hospitals close to the battlefront, military nurses, often working under fire, help make the difference between life and death. Most are in the National Guard or Reserve on deployment from hospital and health care jobs. These weapons-carrying nurses, wearing Kevlar body armor, helmets and dressed in desert fatigues, are combat-ready professionals who, faced with the terrible consequences to flesh and bone of roadside bombs, guns and rockets, save lives under challenging conditions and at risk to their own safety.

Many have been deployed several times; most would go again in a moment.

“Battlefield nursing is about service, and if you can serve your country, make a difference and be a powerful force on the battlefield helping people, that is life-changing,” said Col. Bruce A. Schoneboom, a nurse anesthetist and acting dean of the Graduate School of Nursing of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md. The school specializes in military and public health medicine and trains people for battlefield medicine in Iraq and Afghanistan.
go here for more
http://www.telegram.com/article/20080525/NEWS/805250617/1116