Intensive care unit nursing patients back to life

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tong Duong
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  The beeping of heart rate monitors and dripping of intravenous saline solutions play in the backdrop of the Air Force Theater Hospital, as nurses and technicians check on patients.

The base hosts the largest military hospital in Iraq, where all severe medical or trauma related emergencies are routed though the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Operations Squadron intensive care unit.

"Our mission at the ICU is to take care of the patients brought here from throughout Iraq, whether Defense Department, U.S. Soldiers or contractors," said Capt. Eric Magnuson, 332nd EMDOS ICU critical care nurse, deployed from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska.

Patients in ICU typical suffer from battlefield trauma to medical emergencies such as cardiac and sometime respiratory. Typically a nurse in the intensive care ward is responsible for up to four patients, and those in ICU require one-on-one care, Capt. Magnuson, a native of Palmer, Alaska, said.

While local nationals are admitted to the hospital, treatments are limit to threat of life, limb or eyesight. All else are diverted to local area hospitals.

"In the past we would take just about anybody, but because we are downsizing our mission is changing," Capt. Magnuson said." Unfortunately we are focusing more on caring for just U.S personnel."

The captain said his most memorable moment occurred during the first week he arrived here. "We had a servicemember who sustained a gunshot to the head, and we were able to stabilize and send him off to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany for further care," he said.

According to Capt. Magnuson, the ICU currently boasts a very high survival rate, stating "greater than 99 percent."

Senior Airman Casey Wilson, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group ICW medical technician, who is deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, said he enjoys the challenge of his job.

"The fact that things change from day to day, and we get to see something new all the time is what I like the most," Airman Wilson, a native of Auburn Wash., said.

A volunteer firefighter of two years and an emergency medical technician for a more than a year, Airman Wilson said he joined the Air Force to become a firefighter. When he did not pass the visual exam at the military entrance processing station, his recruiter convinced him to continue in the medical field. Airman Wilson said he very fortunate for his position in ICU after technical school.

"There is nothing better than helping a severely injured patients improve and be able to leave the hospital on their own power," Airman Wilson, who is on his first deployment, said.