My mom just asked the question, thank you Why is that so difficult for some people to say? Two small words that would mean so much. Since I was already going through Joes war journals I came to my other favorite entry and I thought I would share. It is a moment, in the midst of war, where a lesson on gratitude was given and received in the back of a bloody helicopter. June 19, 2008 ... We went out this suburb of Fallujah and we hit an LZ on the edge of a line of homes, on a wide open field, which use to be a row of buildings and now was piles of mortar. An ambulance drove up and they threw a rough looking IP (Iraqi Police) onto my litter pan. I climbed in, and the man asked for water to be poured on his head and face, the dried blood ran from his sharp eye brows and sunken cheeks and he said thank you. His gracious attitude taught me a lot about optimism. I would not expect anyone in his condition to even be conscious, let aline gracious, because upon examination I noticed his left hand and foot were gone and his right leg was attached by a thin piece of skin about halfway up his thigh. There was no skin on his right calf, just what looked like dried strips of beef jerky strung out on his bones. I did a quick examination and found he was still bleeding from a few different holes. Biggie (Joes crew chief) asked if he could help, so I tossed him some curlex and tape and told him to help me start plugging these holes. On the mans left leg, there was a piece of shrapnel that I was not even going to touch, but put some curlex on it to stabilize it and control the bleeding. The man kept trying to sit up and look around, and we tried to keep him supine. It was a short flight. I dropped the man off at the SSTP and came in for a bit and waited. The next call came and we had to take the same guy to Ballad. I had a flight nurse on this led so I did not do much except monitor O2 and keep an eye on Barbarian 62, our chase helicopter. The man was sedated now and the nurse was not going to see what I saw, but the lesson rings true. If a victim was involved in such a traumatizing event, that it took from him three of his four limbs, and he still had gratitude, who am I to withhold such a commodity? Is my life so bad that I reserve the right to withhold a thank you? - Sgt Joseph Campbell, Iraq 2007-2008 - Flight medic with Dustoff
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 04:43:58 +0000
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