Originally Posted By: Jeff_McCann
Montanero:

First and foremost, thank you for your service. I realize most SF folks tend to be pretty well trained as medics of one sort or another; was that your main gig?

Most of my contact with military medicine has come from working around or cross-training with SAR, SF and Naval medicine and field hospital types, a pretty impressive group.

How were you guys type and cross-matching blood all the way forward, and how far forward did you carry and use blood products? We stand to gain a lot from recent advances in military medicine, so I'm curious, if you happen to have any links handy, or anything.

Personally, I've been waiting for those artificial gas transporting blood products that don't require antigen matching or refrigeration that were just about to come out for, oh, about twenty years now.


Jeff




I was not a medic. The unit medics only carried IVs and focused on keeping the guy alive until the surgical team could get him. In Iraq, the Forward Surgical Teams (FSTs) were going right into the firefight to rescue wounded and could give blood products. I had a friend who took several AK rounds in one leg. He was bleeding out quickly and the firefight was still raging. The FST came right to him in their armored vehicle and gave him 3 liters of blood. He lost his leg but survived. (Side note: He received his prostetic leg at Walter Reed, recovered quickly and was such a pain to the staff they kicked back to the unit. He fought hard and won the ability to deploy back to Iraq with his team.)

I will check with some friends about links or info. Our medics were awesome, no doubt. I have let them cut on me before without hesitation. The SF medical course (18D course or 300F1 for those who were in) is the standard for all special operations medical personnel, regardless of branch. It is academically the most demanding course in the services. It includes a tremendous amount of hands on, and even a residency requirement.