Page 9 - JSOM Winter 2017

This knowledge has been broadcast rapidly and adopted helmet with a mask attached to it and a chest protector that
pretty quickly.’ guards the catcher’s throat. He worked with Alcoa Aluminum
and other companies to develop aluminum bats as a cost-effec-
“Kragh said he finds his job as a researcher rewarding because tive alternative to wooden bats, which often shattered and had
he is having an impact on the lives of Servicemembers. ‘When I to be replaced. In the 1970s, Hale was chairman of a commit-
was a kid I only had one job . . . I was a lifeguard,’ he said. ‘I still tee of the National Academy of Sciences that developed a new
am. When a Servicemember is in shock because they are bleed- military helmet made of Kevlar.
ing out, it’s like reaching over the side of the pool and bringing
them back. There’s nothing like that. That’s the reward.’”
The Little League calls Hale “one
Dr Kragh is the Senior Editor on the Editorial Board of the JSOM. of the most qualified leaders in
He will be the subject of “Special Talk” in the Spring 2018 issue the field of sports safety research
and will provide us with many more details of his career and work. and an innovative administrator
who has greatly contributed to
■ ■ ■ molding Little League Baseball
into the world’s largest and most
Col John Wightman to Be the Next Uniformed respected organized youth sports
Chair of USU’s Department of Military and program.”
Emergency Medicine
Arthur L. Kellermann, MD, MPH, dean, F. Edward Hebert For more information, see the obituary by Richard Sandomir,
School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the 20 October, 2017 (https://nyti.ms/2zqBBcT), and Hale’s auto-
Health Sciences, announced that JSOM Associate Editor Col biography, written with Mary Ellen Gardner, More Than a Bat
John Wightman, MD, FS, MA, EMT-P/T, Wing Surgeon for and a Ball: My 60 Years at Little League, which was published
the 24th Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida, by Little League Baseball in 2015.
will be the next uniformed chair of USU’s Department of Mili- ■ ■ ■
tary and Emergency Medicine (MEM).
MEM is a distinctive department at USU. In addition to New Drug Kits Save Police Dogs
teaching their students the fundamentals of emergency care, From Opioid Overdoses
including Tactical Combat Casualty Care and Advanced Life Law enforcement officers have started carrying naloxone with
Support, MEM teaches key aspects of military medical prac- them on drug raids, when K9s are often sent into houses or
tice, operational medicine and leadership. It also supports cars to find narcotics. Three police dogs in Florida were rushed
three of USU’s interdisciplinary research centers: the Con- to an animal hospital last year when they ingested fentanyl, a
sortium on Health and Military Performance (CHAMP), the powerful painkiller that is often mixed with street heroin but
Defense Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management 50 times more potent. Massachusetts State Police started car-
(DVCIPM), and the National Center for Disaster Medicine rying naloxone for their K9s in March. Police in Hartford, CT,
and Public Health Caution. started in January.
Currently, Col Wightman is the chief medical officer for the For both humans and dogs, naloxone can be administered
Air Force’s only Special Tactics Wing, where he coordinates through an injection or a nasal spray. Some police departments
headquarters medical policies, procedures, and operational carry the nasal spray for their K9s, while others carry the in-
support for two Special Tactics Groups, two Operational Sup- jectable form. And, like people, dogs can require multiples
port Squadrons, and seven Special Tactics Squadrons across doses. For more information, see https://www.cbsnews.com/
15 CONUS and two overseas locations. He is board certi- news/new-drug-kits-save-police-dogs-from-opioid-overdoses/.
fied in emergency medicine and forensic medicine. He is an
award-winning educator and was the first Servicemember on ■ ■ ■
continuous active duty to be promoted to professor of emer-
gency medicine. COL (Ret) Fran O’Connor, who has chaired “DAMAGE CONTROL”
MEM since 2013, will continue to lead the department until Trauma Medicine Has Learned Lessons
Col Wightman arrives later this spring. After that, he will join From the Battlefield
Dr Patty Deuster, JSOM Section Contributor, as medical direc- Civilian Doctors Are Saving More Lives After
tor of CHAMP. Terrorist Attacks by Copying Their Military Peers
■ ■ ■ After major attacks, trauma hos pitals resemble war zones. Af-
ter the 1 October 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, the floors of the
Creighton Hale, 93, emergency department at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Cen-
Inventor of Little League Helmet, Dies tre were “awash with blood. The air smelled of iron. Staff
Mr Hale’s childhood sports included baseball as well as box- slipped and slid as they moved from one patient to another.”
ing, football, basketball, and track. He served in the Navy, The staff had never received dozens of patients with multiple
graduated from Colgate University, and earned a master’s in injuries from semiautomatic rifles, which pierce tissue on im-
physiology at Springfield College. He worked on military re- pact and produce shock waves that burst arteries and organs.
search, including testing a more ergonomic infantry pack, and Patients faced death from blood loss and asphyxiation. In re-
received a doctorate in the physiology of muscular activity cent years, civilian medical teams have drawn on the experi-
from New York University. ence of their military peers, which has enabled them to save
more patients with critical injuries. (For further discussion of
In 1961, his dual-earflap helmet became mandatory for Little how hospitals are coping with recent terrorist attacks, please
League batters and runners. Hale also invented a catcher’s (continues on page 85)
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