Wounded soldier’s request goes unheeded
This one is going to get me in trouble, but the story bears repeating. It’s about Private Emily Tomkins who was treating a recently wounded soldier in Afghanistan, both of his legs removed by an Improvised Explosive. She was a medic and had just administered a shot of morphine that didn’t seem to be doing it’s job. She explained to the soldier that she couldn’t give him another for fear of making his condition worse. So the wounded youngster told her;
“Well do something useful and show me your boobs,” she recalled the soldier saying.
Brushing off his request, Tomkins proceeded to carry the injured wounded soldier to safety and is credited with saving his life.
“I was just doing my job,” she said.
Yeah, well, I can see that being a true story. That probably would have been my last request, too. Don’t hate.
Category: Military issues
For what it is worth, I would have showed you my boobs.
TSO, remind me to never ask you for help if I’m hurt . . . . (smile)
#1 yes, I know – you showed them to me in O’Sullivan’s once. You don’t need much convincing.
Why is she ALWAYS a blonde?!
I see this was the Brits.
If this was our Army, there would likely be sexual harassment/assault charges waiting for the wounded guy.
I’m hoping spring and warmer weather shows up soon. I need to get outside and walking so I can work on REDUCING my boobs, er, moobs.
🙂
My hat’s off to him for remaining focused on the important things. The comments are interesting- especially the faux outrage in some of them.
Did anyone see the PJ episode about the high right femur amputation?
Same thing … warrior was asking for relief and none was given (becuase they couldn’t). It was difficult to watch.
So it is not about the boobs … it was about the pain!
@5. That’s what I was waiting to read–that she was disciplined for not reporting sexual harrassment. So glad that it wasn’t part of the story. GIs who get fresh with nurses are legendary. This trooper just couldn’t wait for the nurse and got fresh with the medic. That’s all.
Didn’t the courts determine that their medical coverage had to cover boob jobs? Now I see why it made sense…..they need them as part of the job!
@7 Yeah, there is faux outrage, let me tell ya. I’m a brown. I can’t even claim brunette. And when I tried to go blonde, I turned orange. And we won’t even discuss boobs.
So, yeah. You’re gonna get some serious sour grapes from certain quarters.
That’s why healthcare is great. No two situations are alike. She apparently handled it with the aplomb I would expect from a medic and a healthcare professional.
I remember we’d recover the guys from anesthesia and they would wake up and look at me and a variant of the following would occur:
Joe: “Where are all the hot nurses at??”
Me:”What, am I not good enough for ya? ”
Joe:”No, I mean ‘The Nurses’…You know what I mean. Where are they at?”
Me: ‘Oh, ‘The Nurses’. Gotcha…Hey, LT W, come here a sec’
Enter stage left: LT W (6’6 245 lb Black former Master SGT, newly minted into the Nurse Corp)
LT W: ‘What’s up?’
Me: “Joe here is looking for hot nurses”
LT W: (to Joe) ‘Here we are. How YOU doin?”
Joe:’Sirs…..You guys are fucking killing me. I’m going back to sleep”
On a serious note, though…I hope the trooper (they do call them troopers, don’t they?) did okay. I’ve been around traumatic amputations–it’s never pretty, and they’re very bad for pain control.
Some of the female corpsman (corppeople?) I served with would not have had to worry about me making that request. If I’m going to Valhalla I wouldn’t want the last thing I saw in this world to be a hairy-nippled saggy Wookie tit.
@14. Spat cookie on screen. Thank you.
Pinto, you ought to look into the research that the WRAIR/WRNNMC is doing on ‘Forward placed distal nerve blocks’. They started Phase III trials (or whatever the hell we call them in the military since we don’t have the FDA to worry about) in like 2006/7 and the follow up research was promising. The soldiers with the blocks placed in theater hospitals had significantly less complicated pain management courses during their recovers, (a lot less CRPS and phantom limb syndrome) and a lot less associated co-morbidies from administration of opiates. Cool stuff, and very promising implication for the long term treatment of post traumatic amputation pain management.
Good for her, she took it in the context of the situation.
I’m just glad to see that there are still some adults in this sad sorry world.
I’m glad nobody asked for that from our doc on the boat. Saggy hairy wookie tit, indeed.
Yeah, when your hair goes gray on you, no one wants to look at them.
I still have my slides of that rhinoplasty at NRMC in Philadelphia. Made a pre-med student toss her cookies when I said the surgeon smacke the nasal bone with a hammer to brreak it. That was fun.
But the best one was shooting the procedure for the iliac psoas abscess leg block for repairing a broken heel/ankle.
@16 Thanks for the info! That does sound interesting. It’s been 35 years since I worked with trauma patients, so a lot has changed since then. (For the better, I’m happy to add.)
“hairy-nippled saggy Wookie tit.”
Wiping screen off now you dickweed!
What a sweet story. Oh, not the one posted about. That was interesting.
Jonn and TSO sharing their er, um, man parts. THAT was sweet.
Gonna file this one away for the next time some Army guy starts in on The Navy.
#15 Almost did the same thing with Diet Coke and creme sandwich cookies.
#22 LOL!!!!
@5, I’d be willing to bet that the fact that he was hopped up on morphine after losing both legs would give him a free pass.
Twist, I’m hopped up on morphine all the time … I wonder if I could get away with it …
@16 isn’t forward placed distal redundant? please help me understand, they don’t have coffee here:(
Bar Patron to TSO: “I’d like to see…”
TSO pulls down top.
Bar Patron: “What the hell are you doing?”
TSO: “Huh? Weren’t you going to ask to see my boobs?”
Bar Patron: “No, I was going to ask to see your DD 214.”
SMH…
Friggin’ Army guyz … ADHD.
Watching my Marine son coming out from under anesthesia and the things he said to nurses/Corpsmen was bloody hilarious! One of the Corpsmen after the RPLND was trading (beautifully inappropriate!) lines from movies with him, and he did everything but ask to see her boobs!
Good on her for taking it in stride, and good on her for saving that young man. Really in honesty, we say the same damn things to our male corpsmen, even when we are not hopped up on morphine.
Marine: “Hey Doc! I need you to look at my penis! Tell me if this is normal!”
Corpsman: “Did someone say borepunch?” (pulls out q-tip)
Marine: “Nevermind”
Borepunch and Wookiee tit are what I’m taking away from this conversation. Outstanding.
@ CommancheDoc: ‘Forward placed’ as placed in theater in a Level II/III facility (BAS/FST/CSH), versus placed in a CONUS hospital or other Level IV/V facility.
Sorry about. And by distal nerve block to clarify I mean it’s usually placed at the closest nerve plexus above the injury, usually a mix of bupivicane or lidocane to provide local anesthesia. The research is still ongoing but it’s looking promising.
ANCCPT, much clearer thanks. Any chance of their being anything published for light reading?
Heh. Light reading. Try the following.
“Responding to Challenges in Modern Combat Casualty Care: Innovative Use of Advanced Regional Anesthesia”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-4637.2006.00171.x/abstract;jsessionid=670F35213AE9046C7907351EBB4A7675.d02t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
Or this one.
“The evolution of pain management in the critically ill trauma patient: Emerging concepts from the global war on terrorism”
http://journals.lww.com/ccmjournal/Abstract/2008/07001/The_evolution_of_pain_management_in_the_critically.14.aspx
Some of them are in search databases, so if you have access via a hospital or major school scholarly search engine like PubMED, MEDLINE or one f the other medical centered search engines with access to the NIH databases. Happy reading, brother, and if you find a good one kick it at us.
Man, when I was hit with an IED and on morphine every one of those nurses looked like a 10. I was told by my Capt that I flirted the whole time and I didn’t remember any of it. This gave me a chuckle 🙂
#14, J.O.D., DAMMIT, MAN!! Wouldja PLEASE put *SPEW ALERT!* up there as a warning next time?!
This thread needs Rodney Carrington singing “show them to me” (NSFW).
Hardcore.
Tough. This woman is a team player.
Wish I would have had 10 like her. No sexual bullshit.
Drive on.
This young Private did well. Kudos to both her and her patient in conducting themselves in a manner befitting the situation.
41 fuggin’ comments? Really, people?!
@42
To quote, “T*ts or GTFO.”
It’s a classic. It should have been captured in video, in black & white, with theatrical lighting.
Chesty’s Ball, Old Dog, you’re killing me.
Having been under the influence of morphin under far less trying circumstances, I can see that happening.
Also, I am taking the telling of the story on the medics part as a “no shit, there I was…” story told with a bit of morbid humor only a Doc and grunts get.
Good job Doc!
@43 – O.K…. I’ll concede to that.
Brits have a remarkable sense of humor, and take things in stride I suppose.
When he said…”Show me your boobs” I would have ran and got TSO and Jonn.
Honor and Courage!
And? Did she? If’n I was still young and unmarried I would probably have done *something* to distract from the pain!