{"id":13475,"date":"2013-05-30T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=1ab9915201ef56f5a0202a10182238b0"},"modified":"2013-05-30T12:11:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T12:11:00","slug":"news-story-military-medics-in-gulf-casualty-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=13475","title":{"rendered":"News story: Military medics in Gulf casualty exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An explosion rips through the hull of a merchant vessel, critically wounding 6 members of the crew. Two are in danger of losing limbs, another can\u2019t breathe, and a fourth has deep burns across his chest.<\/p>\n

The casualties are flown to the nearby Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA<\/abbr>) ship Cardigan Bay<\/a>, where the specialist military medics, doctors and nurses of the Role 2 Afloat (R2A<\/abbr>) Team are waiting.<\/p>\n

For the team members, this is a high-pressure situation where life and limb are on the line. The scenario may be fictional, and the casualties may be actors, but the responses and reactions have to be perfect.<\/p>\n

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\"Surgeon<\/div>
Surgeon Commander Catherine Doran gets ready to operate as Surgeon Commander Simon Mercer preps the patient [Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Paul A’Barrow, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best known for their role in the field hospitals of Afghanistan, the medical staff of the R2A<\/abbr> Team are keen to show that they can work anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

To prove this, as part of International Mine Countermeasures Exercise 2013<\/a> (IMCMEX 13), they conducted a mass casualty exercise \u2013 a simulated incident with numerous serious injuries.<\/p>\n

A specialist make-up artist and 2 professional actors from Amputees in Action were brought in to add even more realism to the scenario, and, to put the surgeons of the R2A<\/abbr> Team to the ultimate test, there was an amputation at sea.<\/p>\n

The aim of the mass casualty exercise was to prove that the R2A<\/abbr> Team can operate from the medical facilities aboard RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay, and her sisters Lyme Bay and Mounts Bay.<\/p>\n

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Three of our platforms are Bay Class ships, but we\u2019ve never deployed on one before,\u201d explains Surgeon Commander Richard Heames, the Officer in Charge of the R2A<\/abbr> Team.<\/p>\n

As a result, our first main training aim is to validate ourselves in our ability to operate from this type of ship and deal with patients using the facilities on board.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also here to provide support to the IMCMEX, offering real-world cover to everyone involved.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

18 members of the R2A<\/abbr> Team lived and worked aboard RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay during IMCMEX 13, which took place over 2 weeks in the Gulf region. It is the largest exercise of its kind in the world, bringing together personnel, ships and other military assets from over 40 countries.<\/p>\n

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\"Left<\/div>
Medics in action in RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay’s sick bay [Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Paul A’Barrow, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mass casualty exercise took place over 2 days, allowing time for a realistic simulation of both the merchant vessel incident and a \u2018mine strike\u2019 aboard a minehunter \u2013 a scenario which involved multiple ships, helicopter and boat movements, and a great deal of co-ordination.<\/p>\n

By involving the 2 casualties from Amputees in Action, the medics were able to practise with far more complicated \u2018injuries\u2019 than they can normally train on realistically.<\/p>\n

John Pickup, director of Amputees in Action and one of the simulated casualties, said:<\/p>\n

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This is the first time we\u2019ve trained with the Royal Navy, and it\u2019s been a great experience all round.<\/p>\n

We do lots of work with the Armed Forces and emergency services. The reality of our injuries enables us to play very real, but simulated, casualties and provide a realistic level of training that a lot of people wouldn\u2019t normally be exposed to.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For Leading Hand (Administrative Assistant) Jacqueline Todd, one of RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay\u2019s first aid team, the realistic exercise was an opportunity to put all her skills to the test. She said:<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve dealt with broken bones before, and that\u2019s what I had on the first day of the exercise; however the amputee casualty was something new.<\/p>\n

When he came off the helicopter, I didn\u2019t stop to think about how gory and realistic the injury was. I just remembered my training, and knew I had to get a tourniquet on to stop him bleeding.<\/p>\n

He came up to me afterwards and thanked me for my efforts, telling me that if I\u2019d done what I did for real I would have saved his life. I asked him how he knew, and he said \u2018because you tied it really tight!\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"The<\/div>
The medical team get ready to prep a casualty for an operation [Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Paul A’Barrow, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The R2A<\/abbr> Team also had to work seamlessly with RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay\u2019s embarked medical team, the command structure for the exercise and in collaboration with a smaller medial facility aboard the United States Navy assault ship USS Ponce.<\/p>\n

Leading Naval Nurse Lesley Robinson is one of the R2A<\/abbr> Team\u2019s trauma nurses, and found herself in the thick of the action once the casualties started coming in. She said:<\/p>\n

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Everything came together during the exercise. We were able to deploy and set up out here within 48 hours, and during the scenario everything went really well.<\/p>\n

The Amputees in Action and the make-up all add a huge sense of realism to the trauma cases we have to deal with.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Surgeon Commander Heames congratulated his team, as well as the staff from RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay and USS Ponce, saying:<\/p>\n

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The mass casualty exercise has been successful in developing the medical care process from point of injury, through lifesaving surgery aboard RFA<\/abbr> Cardigan Bay, and onward transfer to hospital.<\/p>\n

Once again, members of the Defence Medical Services<\/a> have risen to the challenge of delivering an exceptionally high standard of medical care, this time in the unfamiliar maritime environment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sick bay of RFA Cardigan Bay was the medical hub of a major multinational 2-day mass casualty exercise in the Gulf recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13529,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13475\/revisions\/13529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}