The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: philw on April 09, 2010, 08:39:52 AM
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2925205/Docs-pull-explosive-Taliban-bullet-out-of-soldiers-head.html
A SOLDIER underwent a five-hour brain op to remove a high-explosive bullet - which could have blown his head off at any moment.
Army surgeons donned BODY ARMOUR after the Afghan man was rushed in following a bomb blast.
Non-essential staff were evacuated when a scan on what was thought to be just shrapnel revealed it to be a 2½in incendiary round.
The Taliban bullet, containing 2oz of high explosives. was powerful enough to have killed the entire surgical team. But the brave US medics succeeded in delicately extracting it during the marathon operation at Bagram air base, Afghanistan.
Their unnamed patient - a member of the Afghan National Army - suffered serious brain injury but was recovering last night.
Relieved Sgt William Carter, a member of the surgical team, admitted: "It was a real concentrated effort on everyone's behalf to ensure that we were all safe - and the patient was safe as well."
Radiologist Lt Col Anthony Terreri, whose scan revealed the bullet, said: "Initially I thought it was a spent end of some sort of larger round. Then I saw that it was not solid metal on the inside."
The military hospital went into immediate lockdown and bomb disposal experts were called.
After the op the bullet was taken away to be destroyed.
It is the first time such daring surgery has been carried out since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.
In half a century US medical teams have tackled fewer than 50 cases involving the removal of deadly explosives from patients.
Sgt Carter said: "This type of situation is remarkable."
Hope the Dr was good at the game operation
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HOOAH!!!
When just another day at the office isn't exactly just another day at the office.
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Here is a similar story from one of my classmates about the same sort of incident. The video gets a bit graphic. So be warned.
The story is about PVT Channing Moss, who was impaled by a live RPG during a Taliban ambush while on patrol. Army protocol says that medevac choppers are never to carry anyone with a live round in him. Even though they feared it could explode, the flight crew said damn the protocol and flew him to the nearest aid station. Again, protocol said that in such a case the patient is to be put in sandbagged area away from the surgical unit, given a shot of morphine and left to wait (and die) until others are treated. Again, the medical team ignored the protocol. Here's a seven-minute video put together by the Military Times, which includes actual footage of the surgery where Dr. John Oh, a Korean immigrant who became a naturalized citizen and went to West Point, removed the live round with the help of volunteers and a member of the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team.
Click link below:
http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/rpg_surgery/
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Outstanding performance by all, bucking the rules and all, for the right reason. Hero's come in many flavors, seems like that was a operating room full of them.
OORAH :'(
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Great job by brave people. Disarm it, and mount it on the wall for him.
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where do these cavemen and dope growers get incendiary rounds? never heard of the Soviets using them.