Bagram hospital prepares for more casualties

Stars & Stripes reports that the folks at Bagram’s Craig Joint Theater Hospital is gearing up in anticipation for more casualties in Afghanistan as more troops arrive, ROE restrictions loosen and air strikes increase;

“The more combat you have, the more casualties you’re likely to have,” said Col. Walter M. “Sparky” Matthews, head of the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group. He oversees the military’s medical task force responsible for non-special-operations medical teams here. “It would be unwise for us not to plan for an increase in casualty numbers.”

The medical system is ready and able to treat more wounded than it has been, even without added staff, Matthews said, because the number of casualties is normally pretty low. The Bagram hospital was quiet on a recent afternoon, and its emergency and operating rooms were empty. A few Afghans in civilian attire and bandages sat in a waiting area.

“It would also be unwise for us to assume that the low numbers of U.S. casualties that we’ve had in the recent past would remain that way,” he said. “We’re certain that increase is going to come. We just don’t know to what degree.”

Colonel Matthews says that his traffic through the hospital has a 99% chance of survival.

Officials would not say how many patients were Afghan troops, but there were just 113 U.S. casualties in fighting in the country last year.

The motto on rounds here is “no one dies today,” and as they’ve come close to achieving that goal, deaths have become so rare that Matthews said it’s unnerving when someone does not survive.

My son was at Bagram a few years ago and he told me that they treated more Taliban than allied troops during his tour.

Category: Terror War