Baghdad ER on HBO - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

MikeWaters · 05-30-2006, 03:51 AM

I just saw most of it tonight. My heart goes out to those people. Both the wounded guys and all the medical personel.

When I was a med student I worked in a crazy public hospital, did ER work among the surgeons. All those ER trauma scenes brought back memories of all the trauma cases that would roll in. I would be one of the guys putting on EKG leads, and taking care of tasks here and there. It was a high stress environment. A lot of memories.

That sort of work takes its toll. And then to live in a place where you could be hit by a mortar any second. To never go more than a half mile from the hospital. I can only imagine. Waking up and dreading the next mangled soldier to be medevaced in.

One thought that I kept having is why can't we do a better job when it comes to IED's? Isn't there something more we can do? I can't imagine driving a truck in Iraq, just wondering when you are going to get blown up. With all our money and technology it is a shame that we can't do better. The enemy is viral. It mutates faster than we can make the vaccine.

It seemed like most of the guys that were hurt were southern rural white folk. Salt of the earth. The poor and the lower middle class are nobly bearing the burden of this war. This is a tough thing. Volunteer vs. draft. Most of us probably don't have any friends in Iraq. In my case, there was the ROTC acquaintance who died. I also have a Micronesian mission companion who was in Fallujah. When Rep. Murtha mentioned a Micronesian soldier having lost all four extremities, I was very scared that it was him. Turns out it wasn't, but still, it breaks my heart to think of someone paying that price. Someone not even likely a citizen of the United States.

05-30-2006, 03:51 AM	#1
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	Baghdad ER on HBO I just saw most of it tonight. My heart goes out to those people. Both the wounded guys and all the medical personel. When I was a med student I worked in a crazy public hospital, did ER work among the surgeons. All those ER trauma scenes brought back memories of all the trauma cases that would roll in. I would be one of the guys putting on EKG leads, and taking care of tasks here and there. It was a high stress environment. A lot of memories. That sort of work takes its toll. And then to live in a place where you could be hit by a mortar any second. To never go more than a half mile from the hospital. I can only imagine. Waking up and dreading the next mangled soldier to be medevaced in. One thought that I kept having is why can't we do a better job when it comes to IED's? Isn't there something more we can do? I can't imagine driving a truck in Iraq, just wondering when you are going to get blown up. With all our money and technology it is a shame that we can't do better. The enemy is viral. It mutates faster than we can make the vaccine. It seemed like most of the guys that were hurt were southern rural white folk. Salt of the earth. The poor and the lower middle class are nobly bearing the burden of this war. This is a tough thing. Volunteer vs. draft. Most of us probably don't have any friends in Iraq. In my case, there was the ROTC acquaintance who died. I also have a Micronesian mission companion who was in Fallujah. When Rep. Murtha mentioned a Micronesian soldier having lost all four extremities, I was very scared that it was him. Turns out it wasn't, but still, it breaks my heart to think of someone paying that price. Someone not even likely a citizen of the United States.