Army Rangers Increasingly Becoming Own Medics on the Battlefield — And Saving Lives
- Posted on August 16, 2011 at 8:30pm by
Liz Klimas
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CHICAGO (AP) — When Army Ranger Leroy Petry’s hand was blown off by a grenade as he was saving his comrades in battle, he knew just what to do. He used his remaining hand to twist a tourniquet around his arm to avoid bleeding to death.
Sgt. 1st Class Petry, awarded the Medal of Honor last month, was with a regiment trained in do-it-yourself battlefield treatment. That kind of quick care on the field led to a 92 percent survival rate for the regiment over more than seven years, a study found.
Of the 32 deaths, just one had wounds considered potentially survivable, in this case massive bleeding. That Ranger died from post-surgery complications.
The study found a 3 percent death rate from potentially survivable causes in the 75th Regiment between October 2001 and April 2010. That compares with a 24 percent rate in a previously reported set of U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, which included troops who didn’t have the Ranger-style training, the study authors said.
Petry “is a prime example of how this works,” said lead author Dr. Russ Kotwal of the Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. President Barack Obama awarded Petry his medal in a ceremony where he shook the Ranger’s new robotic hand.
Historically, about 90 percent of combat-related deaths have occurred in the field, before troops reached a medical facility. Mindful of that, the Rangers adopted a new approach more than a decade ago, focusing on certain types of injuries, after a review of casualties in previous wars.
The idea is straightforward: There aren’t enough doctors or medics to treat battlefield wounds, so Rangers must be equipped with their own first aid devices and trained to use them.
“If you can’t do it to yourself, then you grab somebody to do it for you,” Kotwal said.
The study, published Monday in Archives of Surgery, details the Rangers’ approach, which also has been adopted in some other parts of the military.
The Rangers are part of the Army’s Special Operations Command. They undergo training over a couple of days in how to treat battlefield wounds.
The focus is immediately treating the three main types of “potentially survivable” injuries: extreme bleeding from arms or legs, collapsed lungs from chest trauma, and airway blockage, including blood or tissue caught in the throat.
Soldiers are equipped with tourniquets, special wound dressings and needles used to treat major chest injuries. Their medical training is considered “as important as shooting,” said Dr. John Holcomb, the study’s senior author.
“To really inculcate this training and mentality into the entire regiment takes a couple of years,” Holcomb said.
Master Sgt. Harold Montgomery, a medic, said he’s “an absolute believer” in the approach.
He said he has seen non-medics administer treatment without qualms. “The one time you see them flustered” is treating severe chest wounds, which can cause air to fill the chest cavity and collapse the lungs. Treatment “is sticking a big needle into somebody’s chest” to deflate the air build-up. “It can quickly save a life,” but non-medics sometimes seek assurance from more medically experienced comrades about when it’s really needed, Montgomery said.
Causes of injuries and deaths examined in the study included explosive devices and gunshot wounds, which accounted for half of the deaths. Most battlefield treatment focused on controlling bleeding and non-medical personnel applied 42 percent of the tourniquets.
The approach studied teaches soldiers “to take a deep breath” in the middle of combat and “fall back on a basic set of concepts and maneuvers shown by this study to increase survival of those wounded,” said Dr. Todd Rasmussen, an Air Force surgeon who is the deputy commander of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas.
It is being adopted in some military settings and by police in nonmilitary settings, “to overcome the chaos of these types of events, whether it is an explosion on the battlefield or a live shooter at a mall,” Rasmussen said. He was not involved in the study.
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pr0grammer
Posted on August 18, 2011 at 7:03amDuh, Combat Lifesaver.
Report Post »75thRanger83
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 4:09pmI was shot in the hip 2 years ago in Afghanistan and if it wasn’t for our training I would have been in a real bad situation.
Report Post »crapgame
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 12:28pmArmy Rangers lead the way, in more ways than any of Us can imagine, The battle field treatment skills these warriors learn are invaluable, and are the cutting edge in life saving on the battle field. I would trust thesetroops with My life any day. Take lives for thier country, while saving lives of thier countrymen.
Report Post »Rn-Faxon
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 7:11ampray, without stopping as you go through you day. let everything be a reminder, never miss a moment to prey for our troops and country, our children and this cursed world.
Report Post »NHwinter
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 9:49amGod bless and protect our troops. Bring them home, enough lives have been lost in the ME and I’m not sure it has made any difference. They are still killing each other.
Report Post »rangerp
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 10:27amRangers make me proud.
My first five years was with the 75th (87-92), and the lessons and mind set that I gained have been a huge help throughout my career, and in every aspect of life. The modern day Ranger is truly amazing, their lethality for a light unit is through the roof. Gen Abrams knew what he was doing when he put forth the idea for a Ranger Regiment.
Rangers Lead the Way.
Report Post »ToTheRightoftheLeft
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 5:57amThere is a HUGE difference between basic first aid in 1949 and Ranger Combat Life Saver skills,
Today‘s Ranger’s have more advanced skills that actual Infantry Medics of years past….
88-04… “Scroll before Tab”
Report Post »fastfacts
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 3:09amGOD BLESS OUR SOLDIERS
Did you see what they wanted to do to our soldiers today? According to http://www.americanparchment.com , they wanted to take away their pensions and make them deposit into their 401k’s. This is good and bad.
For privates that are making around $20-30k a year, they don’t have the money to put into the fund. Then again, if they invest right, they will always have it and not be in trouble because they relied on a union pension that will not always be there. Give and take, I would still go with the 401k though.
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 5:31amObama wants them to buy their own health insurance. He probably wants them to use civilian doctors to.
Report Post »Gypsy123
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 1:59amThis is war people Everyone should be a trained medic.
Report Post »warrior21
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 5:06amWhen I read that Army Rangers are becoming are becoming own medics I was astonished. I attended basic training at Fort Knox. KY in January of 1949. Each trainee was taught basic combat first aid. Each platoon had an Aid man who was trained in the finer points of treating combat injuries. The treat for a “Sucking Chest Wound” will remain forever in my memory.
Report Post »These techniques are not used only by the Rangers; an Infantry grunt has basically the same training. The idea is to treat the injury and get the wounded back to the rear as quick as possible. Special Forces have highly trained medics who can perform many of the techniques used by a doctor. If the Rangers are just now receiving this training it is pretty oblivious that somewhere along the line the Army dropped the ball.
Crave
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 11:09amWarrior, you are uninformed. Every soldier passes basic first aid training in…Basic Training. Most regular Army units will have some soldiers with Combat Lifesaver Training scattered sparsely throughout their ranks, in order to suppliment the medics indigenous or attached to the units. 75th Ranger Regiment goes beyond that by ensuring that every Ranger is a trained Combat Lifesaver. In addition, there is a smattering of Intermediate EMTs throughout the ranks. Of course there is also the actual medics, many of which have completed 18D (Special Forces) medic training, and PAs as well as the Batallion Surgeon. So, yeah, the amount of training, knowledge and availability of medical attention for Rangers is much more than you are assuming. To give you an idea of the level of certification and training the lowest level Ranger will have…….As a Combat Lifesaver I can make an airway for you if you can not breath…heck I can not only give you an IV, I can give one to myself if I don’t have a buddy to assist. With that level as the base line for Rangers, I’d say Rangers are leading the way on this front.
RLTW
Report Post »condorman65
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 11:27amI went to Basic at Ft Benning Ga In in 1984 I can assure you alot of these tactics were being taught in Basic then. The difference is they are having to be tried and tested in real life situations more and more now days. God Please Bless our Military.
Report Post »warrior21
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 12:15pmCrave, thanks for the info, however, the most of the techniques discussed here I learned in basic training. As for opening an airway and giving an IV this was part of our cross training and a requirement to earn a prefix “3”. At that time a “3” indicated you were Special Forces qualified. However, I am happy to learn that someone is leading the way on this front. By the way, one of the first things we learned in first aid during basic training was how to treat a “sucking chest wound”. Do they still teach this? I always prayed that I would never have to try it, and luckily, I never had to.
Report Post »snidley-whiplash
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 12:55amStand for all our men and women in uniform defending this great land. But now only this administration would try something like this. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/15/eveningnews/main20092652.shtml
Report Post »obama and the democraps do hate this country and those that defend it.
Oathkeepers alive and well……………………………..
Semper Fi
thomasmichael
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 12:27amGod Bless our Army Rangers.
Report Post »My son is a Ranger and is currently deployed, I don’t know where he is but I do know he is with the best fighting force in the world and they are dedicated to each other. Anyone of them will lay down his life for the other (We know what Jesus said about that and the personal example he set). This is the prayer I wrote for his battalion and him the day he was deployed. I can’t use his name.
My Son has choosen to be an American Warrior. He will destroy the enemies of mankind; those evil doers that treat women like cattle and use children as human bombs. He will have no mercy on them, he will bring them to justice and enlighten the future of the innocent. God has sent my Son as an answer to the prayers of the righteous and innocent. He will protect my Son and his Warrior brothers from harm. It is with free will “Of their own accord” that they accept this challenge. They yield the sword of St. Michael!
Amen
BellaMia7
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 1:08amMy son is an MP and headed over there soon. God bless our troops, their families, and God bless America.
Report Post »Ron_WA
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 1:30amGod bless you & your son. RTLW!
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 11:21amMy son is deployed in Iraq. God Bless each and every one. What amazes me is that men and women continue to voluntarily join the military. The number of depolyments does concern me.
Report Post »BannedByHuffpo
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:28pmOn the battlefield in Vietnam in 1968 it was “Stop the bleeding; Clear the airway; Protect the wound; and Prevent and treat for shock”. They didn’t practice modern CPR back in those days. The best you could hope for was a UH1H Huey “Dustoff” helicopter to get you the hell out of the battle and somewhere where they could treat your injuries. On the ground, we did the best we could with what we had.
Report Post »loveliberty83
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:25pmvery seldom will a Ranger or his family talk to the media, could not tell their famlies where they were going or when they were coming back , when they left in the middle of the night -
Report Post »jnt4136
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:38pmMy brother was in the air force ! I,m a U.S ARMY Ranger not in the same world As the rest of the armed forces in most case,s !!
Report Post »BlkWdow
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:37pmI would like these guys to operate on me rather some doctors I know. I mean they see a problem & they fix it…no stupid questions like: you have insurance? allergies? there are some things that you just do without questioning!
I mean we give them the right to kill & protect us…so really? What’s the problem here?
Report Post »Mr. Emmitt
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:37pmHave a great respect for these guys. Served proudly as an Army medic, 72-74.
Report Post »OneFunR6
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:23pmThank you!
Report Post »jnt4136
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:32pmJ Osgood Ranger class185 !!! First aid training is not the same as combat life saving tech that the Rangers or doing !!!
Report Post »chazman
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:35pm… I want our boys and girls out of there NOW!!!!!!!!
Report Post »Ron_WA
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:23pmRangers Lead The Way! It’s been a couple of years now since I was in the Regiment but we did get awesome hands on battlefield medical training.
Good to see some recognition for the boys. This is what you get from a highly trained, highly skilled brotherhood of multi-mission volunteers.
I still remember (not so fondly) practicing giving each other IVs under black out conditions using night vision goggles (human pin-cushins) … ah, the bad old days, but it pays off … RTLW!
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 1:33amWarms the heart to see the boys still leading the way, I’m an old 2/75 Ranger RET in WA good to see there are others.
Report Post »liberum1776
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:05pmAs I recall, we always did our own medic stuff, that’s the way it was, that’s the way it is
Report Post »Patrick in AZ
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:10pmIn the Air Force we call it Self-aid and Buddy Care – normal training requirement
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:03pmGod bless these boys. As the daughter of a Ranger I wish they would be doing a lot more as far as medics and battlefield doctors. We send these boys to war we need to be taking better care of them. Way to go for going above and beyond Rangers my prayers are constantly with you and the rest of the troops
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 9:59pmRangers Lead the Way.
Report Post »Uncurable wound
Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:37pmYes we do brother,go 75th
NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND…
Report Post »Ron_WA
Posted on August 17, 2011 at 1:40amI’m w/ ya brother. It’s the Ranger creed “never leave a fallen comrade …” 4 time volunteer just to get in the door. RTLW!
Report Post »