Page 115 - JSOM Winter 2018

Summary of the CMC Scientific Program 2018

Lieutenant Colonel Dr Jochen Lührs, Military Medical Center Ulm

or the third time, the CMC Conference organizers had His presentation was followed fittingly by the first session on
prepared an exciting and interesting scientific program. the topic: “Recent Terror Attacks—How Can We Improve.”
FDuring 2 days and eight sessions, 34 lectures were held The organizers had invited speakers who talked about their
on current topics. The international participants were able experiences made in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks
to follow the presentations with simultaneous interpretation in London and Brussels. A common international concept is
in English and German. In addition to speakers from Europe the division of the site of the attack in three danger zones in
(France, Germany, England, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Swit- accordance with the TCCC phases. The idea is that within the
zerland), there were experts from all over the world (Canada, area under fire, only police forces will be present and transport
Nigeria, South Africa, United States). any casualties to the medical personnel in the tactical field care
zone. An essential aspect of this concept is the required po-
After the welcoming speeches, Staff Sergeant James C. Lee, lice training and equipment enabling officers to provide initial
member of the United States Army Special Operations Group, medical care (most of all measures such as bleeding control).
started with his own emotional case report on tactical medi-
cine. Speaking without any notes or visual presentation, he told The subsequent session on “Recent Military Missions—Les-
about a mission in Afghanistan when his unit became involved sons Learned” informed about current military missions with
in a severe firefight and he was critically injured by grenades. a focus on Africa. The mission in Mali is considered the dead-
In his authentic report, he described the injuries he sustained liest UN mission in history. In this mission, too, civilian–mili-
through the direct blast radius of a detonating grenade, which tary cooperation plays an important role. To demonstrate an
included shrapnel wounds over the entire body, a severe lung example of this cooperation, the South African company Star-
injury, and a severe injury to the right arm. The initial medical lite presented their AirMedEvac concept. Major (MC) Stephan
care was provided by the team medic and fellow soldiers while Kühn presented the Bundeswehr evacuation concept in Mali
still under fire. On account of the persisting battle, it took 48 with the Forward Air MedEvac NH90. The emotional and
minutes to evacuate him by helicopter. During this time, Lee medical highlight of this session was the presentation by Prof
was stabilized and received life-supporting measures. When he Sam Attar from the United States. He had been to Syria vari-
arrived at the hospital, he lost consciousness due to blood loss ous times as a civilian surgeon and provided surgical treatment
and a tension pneumothorax and went into cardiac arrest for during the civil war (e.g., in Aleppo) under the most difficult
63 seconds despite the intensive care provided to him. After conditions. He presented the surgical approach to combat-re-
immediate thoracotomy and open cardiac resuscitation, his lated injuries by giving vivid examples. Not only the constant
cardiopulmonary activity returned and then he could receive bombings but particularly the many tragedies of the civilian
surgical care. population witnessed by him underlined his commitment. The
participants paid tribute to him with standing ovations. The
Only through the professional tactical and medical assistance experienced surgeon Vart Vanderheyden from Belgium in-
of his fellow soldiers and after dozens of surgeries did Staff formed about the care provided to more than 200 patients at
Sergeant Lee recover. By now, he had been on operations a casualty collection point in Mossul, Iraq. The participants
abroad again. Through his personal experience, he was able had the opportunity to take a look beyond Europe with the
to emphasize impressively the significance of adequate medical presentation given by Colonel B.O. Aderoba on the Nigerian
first aid in tactical situations within the golden hour. He con- rescue system applied in the fight against Boko Haram.
cluded his speech by thanking the participants for their disci-
pline, commitment, and willingness to train on a constant level Another priority of this CMC conference was CBRN. A spe-
in order to make the right decisions during operations and to cial session held not only as part of the scientific program em-
assist severely injured persons like him in accordance with the phasized the importance of this topic. A variety of problems
CMC motto “Who Cares Wins.” such as the identification of contaminations and decontamina-
tion were elaborated. The Syrian conflict and, most recently,
The keynote speaker, independent security advisor Uwe Kranz targeted attacks on civilians in Great Britain showed that cat-
from Germany, opened the eyes of the participants to the ac- egories B and C agents were actually used. Modern detection
tual enormity of the current threat posed by terrorist organi- techniques as well as first-aid measures were presented. This
zations. He informed about the historical development of the topic will certainly become even more important in the future.
individual terror cells, called the masterminds by their names,
and provided terrifying statistics. According to him, the threat Major Elizabeth Hoettels and Major Suzanne See of the
to civilians has never been greater. United States Air Force Austere Surgical Team informed about

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