What got me....

[Leatherpuke]

Worked on a civilian casualty in Iraq on my first deployment. Massive multi system trauma from picking up an IED and it went off in his hands. He was brought in by two of his family members in the back of a pickup truck. They were screaming, crying, and praying in Arabic but it was pretty clear what they were saying without needing a translator. " This is all your fault!" The look of blame and hate in their eyes is something that will stay with me, even though I had nothing to do with the incident that caused it. Oddly enough, it was that incident that helped me decide on EMS as my post-Army career.

 

[Jim37F]

Worked on a civilian casualty in Iraq on my first deployment. Massive multi system trauma from picking up an IED and it went off in his hands. He was brought in by two of his family members in the back of a pickup truck. They were screaming, crying, and praying in Arabic but it was pretty clear what they were saying without needing a translator. " This is all your fault!" The look of blame and hate in their eyes is something that will stay with me, even though I had nothing to do with the incident that caused it. Oddly enough, it was that incident that helped me decide on EMS as my post-Army career.

I have almost the exact same story, except it was in Afghanistan. While a shepherd was moving his flock on the outskirts of the village, one of his kids saw something shiny on the ground and started to play with it. We figured it was an unexploded 40mm....we ended up flying out 3 or 4 of the family. I had CLS, figured I could do buddy aid no problem if the need arose, but this..I just froze. Had no idea what to do. Our two 18Deltas who were our camp medics performed flawlessly, not just with the injuries, but even with me, "Hey I need you to go grab this, I need you to do that.." kept me moving and working.

The local village tended to use us as their de facto trauma center, we'd get everything from the Afghani kid who fell out of a tree to the housewife who had some nasty burns after catching on fire while cooking (there were some in our camp who never quite believed that story). I always wanted to help, but back then all I really knew about emergency medicine was pretty much direct pressure and touriquets, I was usually sidelined. I always wanted to learn, but didn't really get the chance until I came home on active duty..