Page 117 - JSOM Winter 2018

2018 Combat Medical Care (CMC)
Conference Abstracts

Life in an Underground Syrian Field Hospital early spring of 2015. Orders were to support the European
Samer Attar, MD, FACS Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA Union border control “Frontex”. Due to the large number of
migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea at the time, it was
he United Nations has called the conflict in Syria “the decided to not only focus on border control but also on the
Tgreatest humanitarian tragedy of our times,” and UN offi- ability to perform search and rescue mission. The Royal Nor-
cials have said that they are “running out of words” to describe wegian Navy was tasked to support the police run mission,
the horrors inside Syria. What started as a peaceful protest and did so by deploying personnel from the Coast Guard with
1
in March 2011 has led to 7 years of an escalating conflict in experience from boarding operations and operations at sea.
which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Force health protection was maintained by deploying person-
nel from the Royal Norwegian Navy Medical Services. The
The use of chemical weapons and napalm on civilians, the dec-
imation and mass starvation of civilian populations through vessel was a civilian supply ship, reconstructed and adapted to
conventional warfare, the denial of medical care and hu- suit the missions need. The crew was therefore roughly 30%
manitarian aid, the murder of medics, and the destruction police officers, 30% Navy personnel and 30% civilian crew, in
of schools, bakeries, and hospitals—all of these actions have order to maintain and run the vessel.
been systematic and deliberate by armed forces. 2 The medical team was later supported by personnel from the
Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Medical Services, as the mis-
A collapsed healthcare system further complicates the situa- sion was prolonged and one wanted to avoid fatigue among
tion. Public hospitals and ambulances have been damaged or Navy medical personnel.
out of service. Thousands of healthcare personnel have fled
the country for their safety, and hundreds have been arrested The medical team was a ROLE 1 Level 2 team, consisting of a
and tortured. doctor, 2 nurses and 1 medical technician. The medical team’s
main role was to maintain the health of the crew, the second-
In some areas, sustained bombardments and intense fighting
have transformed civilian and residential neighborhoods into ary aim was to be able to provide emergency medical aid to
a battlefield. As a result, medical work in these areas has been migrants who were sick or injured.
driven underground where doctors and nurses operate in se- In the total operation the Norwegian vessel took on 35 896
cret, makeshift, provisional facilities such as caves, farms, and migrants. Of these, there were 4719 women; 3985 were chil-
apartment buildings. Massacres and mass casualty events have dren assumed under the age of 16; 34 dead were picked up
unfortunately become a daily routine. from other vessels and 65 were found dead or died during SAR
actions where the Norwegian vessel was involved directly.
This presentation will give a glimpse into what life is like for
Syrian medics operating in an underground field hospital un- Operation Triton ended 31.12.2017.
der siege in Aleppo where snipers fire at the rooftop and barrel
bombs land meters from its doorstep. A Combat Trauma Hospital Deployed for
Humanitarian Response
References Colonel B.D. Meunier, MD, FRCPC
1. World Food Programme. Aid principals call for action to in-
crease humanitarian access and funding for Syria crisis. 2013 n January 12th, 2010, the small Caribbean nation of
Dec 18. http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/aid-principals OHaiti suffered a devastating earthquake leading to a
-calling-decisive-action-increase-humanitarian-access-and broad international humanitarian response. For the first time,
-funding-sy. the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) included a deployed com-
2. Brundtland GH, Glinka E, zur Hausen H, d’Avila RL. Open bat trauma field hospital, in addition to its Disaster Assistance
letter: let us treat patients in Syria. Lancet. 2013 Sep 21;382 Response Team (DART). The field hospital was self-sustaining
(9897):1019-20.
and operated for 6 weeks on the outskirts of Léogâne, a town
near the quake epicenter, where estimates placed >80% of the
Operation Triton structures destroyed. The lessons learned from this accelerated
Surgeon Commander Haakon H. Eilertsen, Medical Advisor field hospital deployment for humanitarian response, eight
Royal Norwegian Navy Medical Services
years ago, continue to shape the CAF’s policy and prepared-
peration Triton was an order from the Norwegian gov- ness for domestic and international humanitarian as well as
Oernment to the Norwegian Police Force, and its Norwe- military combat deployments of advanced medical support
gian National Criminal investigative Services (NCIS), in the capabilities.

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