Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 15, 2004 Page: 3 of 24
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April 15,2004
Local Focus
In Our 58th Year
$
Texas Jewish Post
3
Message from the Iraqi theater
Major Jerrold M. Grodin M.D., a Dallas
interventional cardiologist, joined the
U.S. Army on Sept. 12, 2001.
ditor s Note
- Serving in the reserves, he was
deployed in early January of this year and
shipped out later that month to the Iraqi
theater. Here, he shares his thoughts,
exclusively with T/P readers.
«
Major. Grodin at work stitching up a wounded soldier at the 67th
Combat Support Hospital.
Mass casualty alert
patients inbound.”
-w-t is Sunday afternoon here in Camp Dia-
I mondback, and all is quiet. For the first time
JLin several nights, we got good sleep. No
mortar rounds, no sleeping in bunkers, no small
arms fire during the night, and no badly
wounded soldiers. So we are all quite perky
around here. This is in marked contrast to
Friday night. By Friday afternoon, we had
received intel that the bad boys were planning
major action in the area. Mike Cohen, an active-
duty doc, and myself were getting ready to go to
a belated seder in the next camp over when we
were suddenly told that no one was to be let off
base. Everyone was ordered to the hospital, and
preparations were immediately initiated for
receiving large numbers of wounded. Every
spare inch of space in the hospital was used for
extra cots, including the doctors’ conference
room, hallways, etc. Every single doctor and
nurse was brought in, and we began to stockpile
extra IVs, bandages, medications, etc. All the
wounded soldiers in our hospital, who could
walk, were either put to work or transferred to
a holding tent, in order to make room for new
wounded. Several of our wounded guys put
their uniforms back on, and assisted the hos-
pital personnel in preparations.
One such case is Lt. Semple, an African-
American ICU nurse who had been brought
into the hospital two days earlier after he sus-
tained multiple shrapnel wounds when his
Humvee vehicle was hit by a roadside explosive.
Fie had been brought into our ER and was
sewed up by our F.NT doctor, Col. Coffman.
Although none of his wounds were life threat-
ening, his face was swollen and covered with
sutures. So, I am with my team, “Trauma team
#2,” getting everything ready for the onslaught.
I turn around, and there is Lt. Semple, his face
battered and bruised, stitches everywhere,
standing with his M -16 slung over his shoulder
and a stethoscope hung around his neck. Fie
walks up to me and says “Sir, 1 am one helluva
combat ICU nurse, and you need to have me on
vour team!" I stood up, looked deep into his
eyes. In that moment I had a profound under-
standing of why it is that men leave their
families, their wives, their beloved soil, to come
to a dangerous place like this. It is because of a
unique bond than can exist only between
brothers-in arms who answer the highest call
to service and country. 1 asked him, “Are you
sure you feel up to it?" He stood at attention,
saluted me, and answered, “Yes sir, proud to be
here,” And work he did, for the next 36 hours
straight.
Shortly thereafter, the camp intercom
announced, “mass casualty alert, patients
inbound.” The helicopters began arriving, one
after another. Our stretcher teams began to
bring the patients to the triage area, where deci-
sions were made about who needed to go to
surgery first, who could wait, who was beyond
help, etc. I had trained for a mass casualty
before, but to actually be in one was amazing
and unbelievable.
As patients were being hauled into the hos-
pital, we could hear small arms fire on the
perimeter. We came under mortar fire. All of us
were ordered to don full “battle-rattle." that is
kevlar (helmet), flak jacket, and weapons! In the
thick of this, there was no panic, no raised
voices, no evident fear. Every soldier went about
their task efficiently. We saved many lives,
including a young soldier shot in the heart. We
saved many arms and legs too.
We toiled steadily through the night and next
day, no one sleeping, no one complaining,
taking care of our soldiers and each other. It was
a night I will never forget. I took several pictures
through all of this, and will share them with you
when I return.
Well enough for now. I want to go to the gym
and work out. I am on call tonight from 8p.m.
to 8 a.m. I love and miss you all. And I will never
again take our lives, health, freedoms, family,
and country for granted.
Jerrold M. Grodin, M.D.
Major USAR MC
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Wisch, Rene & Wisch-Ray, Sharon. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 15, 2004, newspaper, April 15, 2004; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth755115/m1/3/: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .