By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 1, 2008 8:43:32 EDT
More and more surgical units — doctors, nurses and corpsmen — will be deploying to the front lines in the coming months after trials showed dramatic decreases in combat deaths since the units were first fielded four years ago, according to the Navy’s top doctor.
Since the Korean War, the Navy has not normally placed doctors in front-line units. Instead, corpsmen have stabilized troops, who were then evacuated to mobile hospitals farther from the action to receive care from physicians.
That system, based on getting patients to a trauma surgeon within the "golden hour," led to dramatic decreases in mortality within a generation. Shock-trauma platoons on the front lines are the next step in the evolution of military trauma care, said Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/navy_shocktrauma_063008w/
