Personal Narrative: A Day At The Tactile Care Clinic

In late October of 2012 I was leaving another 12-hour shift on Camp Taji, Iraq to walk approximately a mile to volunteer at the tactile care clinic. I had just submitted my application to medical school and I wanted to make sure I was gaining medical experience in preparation for my transition to civilian life. On the way to the clinic, I couldn’t help but question why our base had not been hit by an artillery attack in 13 days and whether my analysis was correct trying to predict the enemies next launch site. As an intelligence officer, it was my duty to assign areas of interest to an attack helicopter battalion providing overwatch in order to predict and prohibit the next attack. We averaged an attack approximately every 8 days and the

Mostly seeing soldiers with viral illnesses, sprained ankles and lower back injuries. But soon things began to intensify. Approximately 10:00pm a local Ugandan guard was brought into the clinic after falling out a four-story window. Our attending immediately began an initial survey. The guard was nonresponsive but would moan to stimulation with stable vital signs. X-rays and FAST scan where indeterminate. At that point our attending ordered a MEDEVAC to fly our Ugandan patient to Camp Victory 15km south to the only OR left in country for a laparotomy. Moments later our command center reported that the Blackhawk’s ETA was 15 min when a loud explosion sent a blast wave through my body that caused the teeth in my mouth to rattle. It was an unmistakable feeling, large artillery. Our first response was to hit the floor and cover our heads. After a few seconds we heard nothing else and returned our attention to our Uganda patient and our attending ordered us to began to “package” the patient and prepare for departure. He then asked one of our medic when the last time he had taken a blood pressure. He didn’t respond. It had been over 15 minutes. Our physician ordered another blood pressure immediately. This time the reading was undetectable and peripheral pulses where absent. IVs where immediately started and we moved our Ugandan patient to the flight line. It was at that time the MEDEVAC arrived and the flight medic greeted us on the runway. A brief handoff was exchanged over the roaring engines of the Blackhawk and we began to move the patient to airframe. As we approached the helicopter a flash of light 200 meters north of my position sent another shock wave through my body. We quickly off loaded our patient into the helicopter and it immediately took off as we ran for