Well, I've been here about three weeks already, and I'm just getting the blog going, but here's a brief synopsis:

TRAVEL
A hop, skip, and a jump got me here, spanning only 7 days: San Antonio, Baltimore, Germany, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Bagram Air Field, then a bumpy ride on a Short TakeOff and Landing (STOL) plane, and here I was, on the gravel runway of a little place called Forward Operating Base (FOB) Salerno. All the PAX terminals in all the world look the same; my travel needs no more description.

HOSPITAL
Dr. L, the orthopaedic surgeon, and I arrived together and joined a great team of talented and dedicated people here at the Salerno Hospital. Some are doing the same jobs as back home; some are Army reservists who back home are students, foundry workers, salespeople. A reporter from Wisconsin visited recently and did a series of articles (here, here, and here) profiling the hospital personnel, many of whom are from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

OPERATING
It's been great working with the team in the OR here; it seems like us "new guys" have slid in seamlessly with this hardworking crew. One early case reinforces with me not just how talented the crew manning this hospital is, but how much has been built and invested in a system that cares for injured troops and local civilians in a way that is absolutely world-class.

An airman came to our hospital from a nearby FOB after having been shot at close range by a military rifle. Two small puncture wounds on the back gave way to two large holes on the front of his abdomen, the "exit wounds" through which some of his intestine was protruding. As we quickly assessed him, his vital signs began the march into hemorrhagic shock. Without any further ado, he was brought into the operating room, where we spent about two hours stabilizing his injuries, which were numerous. Perhaps the worst was a gash through the head of the pancreas, with several lacerations of the duodenum, the portion of the small intestine that curls around the pancreas. As we worked, we called for a "whole blood drive," since he needed blood and coagulation factors that were in desperately short supply. The message went out to the entire FOB over the loudspeaker, and I later heard that a line of fifty to one hundred people of the blood type announced formed in minutes outside the hospital. That made me proud to be serving with these Americans.

The airman went on to have two more surgeries in the next 48 hours, at Bagram and Germany, before arriving in the USA. That lifesaving system, a globe-spanning chain of trauma care, is greater than the sum of its fallible human parts. It is no accident, but rather, credit is due in large part to the efforts of great Americans like Don Jenkins, John Holcomb, Jay Johannigman, Donald Trunkey, and others who recognized the need, not just for well-trained people, but for a reliable system that meets the needs of our injured troops.