What Happens to Canada's Wounded When They Come Home, Mr Harper?
auldbob...@aol.com
On the long road to recovery
KATHERINE HARDING
EDMONTON -- While the country has stopped to mourn 27 young Canadian
soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the sacrifices of dozens more quietly
continue at home, as they slowly recover from their battle wounds.
Edmonton has emerged as a key hub for treating the returning wounded:
The University of Alberta and Glenrose Rehabilitation hospitals are
becoming this country's version of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
the U.S. military hospital that treats hundreds of soldiers.
A small army of military and civilian medical staff in Edmonton have
had to come to terms with this new reality very quickly due to the jump
in battlefield casualties since Canada's combat duties increased
earlier this year.
Doctors say those who return on stretchers are also coming back with
devastating head injuries and damaged or lost limbs -- wounds more
severe than military medical staff have seen in previous conflicts.
Modern body armour is saving the lives of soldiers who would have died
in battles of yesteryear.
Soldiers, too, are struggling to cope with this new reality.
Only a few months ago, Private Brent Ginther was a 20-year-old
small-town Alberta boy dodging bullets on the hot, dusty battlefields
of Afghanistan.
Today, he is surrounded by wheelchairs, seniors playing shuffleboard
and long days of physiotherapy as he recovers at the Glenrose
Rehabilitation Hospital.
His life was transformed forever on June 12, when those flying bullets
finally caught up to the infantry soldier posted with the 1 Battalion,
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Charlie Company.
He was shot in both thighs after his platoon tried to capture Taliban
insurgents who were cornered behind a grape hut. He now uses a
wheelchair.
"I couldn't really see them and I don't think they could see me. I
guess they got lucky," the plain-spoken 6-foot-1 soldier said from his
hospital bed.
Pte. Ginther's thin legs are strapped into braces. Dressed in
blue-and-white striped pyjamas and a camouflage-coloured baseball hat,
he is surrounded by books and movies, including Office Space, Anger
Management and a thick tome about the history of heavy metal band
AC/DC.
He doesn't recall being dragged into a waiting helicopter after he was
shot. He barely remembers the emergency surgeries that Canadian medics
performed at a field hospital in Kandahar for two days. It's all lost
in a fog of painkillers.
His memories only start to flicker back to life after he was flown to a
U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where he said doctors
"cut a lot of muscle out because it died from not getting enough oxygen
from the tourniquets being on too long."
After six days, he was flown to Edmonton to begin his long recovery and
determined struggle to walk again.
That now familiar route -- Afghanistan to Germany to Canada -- has been
taken by about 20 seriously wounded Canadian soldiers since January.
Dozens more have made the trip since Canada's military was first
dispatched to the war-torn country in 2002.
Not since Canada's involvement in the Korean War more than 50 years ago
have so many of this country's soldiers been killed or maimed on the
battlefield.
Because most of the more than 2,000 soldiers who were sent to
Afghanistan earlier this year for a six-month tour were from the
Edmonton army base, medical staff there were charged with fine-tuning
the plan to treat the first large group of returning wounded.
Major William Patton, Edmonton's base surgeon and most senior medical
officer, said his staff had been preparing for the possibility of
increased casualties for a year, and is confident as outfits from other
Canadian military bases begin to rotate through Afghanistan, they can
learn from Edmonton's experience.
"These practices will be shared nationally," he said.
Major Patton, a 41-year-old former reservist who joined the military
full-time more than a year ago, said he sat down with administrators at
the U of A hospital and Glenrose to explain the impending situation.
He said the reaction by both facilities has been "overwhelmingly
positive and supportive," with each supplying ample resources and staff
when the call goes out that another soldier has been injured.
When the wounded first arrive in Edmonton, most are taken directly to
the U of A hospital, where stays range between three days and several
months. A pseudo-military wing on the hospital's third floor, referred
to as 3F2, has emerged mainly because it has trauma nurses who have
become familiar with dealing with serious combat injuries.
Major Patton said military doctors, surgeons and nurses are "embedded"
in both hospitals to assist with the soldiers' recovery because "they
bring a military perspective to their care."
Combat wounds are more complex to treat than injuries normally seen by
a Canadian doctor, he added. The two most common suffered by returning
soldiers are head wounds, and orthopedic injuries to arms and legs.
Major Robert Stiegelmar, one of two military orthopedic surgeons based
in Edmonton, said most of the seriously wounded he has treated likely
would have died if not for recent advancements in body armour that
protects their vital organs, especially from bomb attacks.
"More people are surviving, and because of that we are seeing things we
haven't, like a person coming in with two broken feet instead of just
one," said the 41-year-old father of four who is being deployed to
Kandahar on Monday.
He said these injuries use a lot of hospital resources because they
require repetitive surgical procedures to repair the damaged skin, bone
and even nerves. For example, soldiers who are hurt in a bomb blast
often require up to 20 operations -- every two to three days -- on
their damaged limbs. During a soldier's recovery, every member is
assigned to what the military call an assisting officer upon their
return to Canada. That person is essentially at the beck and call of
the soldier until she or he no longer requires help, or leaves the
military.
Petty Officer 1st Class Ron Roberts was assigned to Pte. Ginther when
he flew back to Edmonton last June. "I'm at his disposal basically
24/7. My normal daily duties come second," he said. "Brent and his
family are No. 1 over everything else."
PO1 Roberts said that Pte. Ginther's "overall outlook" has changed 100
per cent since they first met. "He's got a tough road ahead of him. But
I think, overall, he has come to terms with the situation and is moving
forward. He's a tough guy."
There are still a lot of unknowns for Pte. Ginther. He doesn't know
when he will be able to walk again. He doesn't know what he wants to do
with the rest of his life.
"I don't know," he sighs. "I've come up with a million different
things. Never just one thing sticks in my head."
Pte. Ginther expects that he will apply for a medical release after he
is rehabilitated and returns home to Coaldale (population 6,000).
"But I don't know what comes after that."
Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
jimjames5417
oLD bOOB(auldbob...@aol.com_ wrote:
> What happens to the wounded when they come home?
Brain Dead and Road Kill during WW2!! They would have installed Hitler
in Ottawa, Washington and London!!
Leo J Callaghan
wrote:
there was an anti-war left in the us up until dec 7/41. then it kind
of petered out for a while and was revived in the early 50's.
Brian
I'm terribly worried that a Afghanistan submarine might enter Canadian waters
and attempt to sink one of Paul Martin's ships.
That would be WAR my dimwitted friend....:)
he...@home.net
It couldn't happen. There are so many Afghans wanting to come to
Canada the sub might be overloaded for the number of lifeboats it can
carry.
Leo J Callaghan
Leo J Callaghan
<springh...@weather.ca> wrote:
>The 'anti-war' left 'petered out' after June 22, 1941 when Germany
>invaded the USSR.
>
too bad they weren't paying attention when the mass murder by stalin
was widely known, before and after the war. but the reply: no, it
can't be and you can't have a revy without spilling a bit of blood. 20
m souls? that is just a bit.
Pender
>The 'anti-war' left 'petered out' after June 22, 1941 when Germany
>invaded the USSR.
Has Canada ever had a PM who wasn't a Liberal leading them in a major world
war?
Yes, it was Robert Borden, but on the other hand, he swept to power over the
Liberals because he opposed Free Trade with the USA!
Times were a little different back in "the day". :)
Mirelle
auldbob...@aol.com wrote:
Reading this my heart aches for the wounded and the dead soldiers.
Condolences to the wounded and to the families and friends of the dead.
All for a war that Canada had no business getting involved in !
It makes me feel sad to be a Canadian.
Ever since Brian Mulroony was Prime Minister, Canada has been sold out
to the U$A !
Harper is not fit to take care of the needs of Canadians !
He is the YES MAN for the U$A !
Mirelle
<snip>
Gaius
>Ever since Brian Mulroony was Prime Minister, Canada has been sold out
>to the U$A !
You forgot the Conservative Diefenbaker, and then how the Liberal Pearson did
it after him! Or how our economy was totally integrated with the USA's
during WW2 under the Liberal Louis St. Laurent!
It's been going for longer than even that!
It has nothing to do with what political side the leader is on. Even
Chrétien pretended to be against the USA, but behind the scenes we had
special forces troops from JTF-2 in Afghanistan with the British SAS and US
ones preparing for the American invasion.