Winding Down

It has been a little quieter for me the past couple of days. Patients continue to come in, but there hasn't been much vascular-related work. Did have an impressive bleed from an iatrogenic innominate vein injury from an ill-advised attempt a tracheostomy in a coalition hospital in Afghanistan (apparently not run by the Americans, but another unnamed European ally). The commander of Landstuhl Med Center happens to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, so he did the sternotomy to repair it (the big dog's gotta eat!).

Had a fairly interesting video conference today with the trauma teams downrange in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as uprange at Walter Reed, Bethesda Naval Hospital, and Brook Army Med Center. They track all of the trauma pts from beginning to end. The process and logistics are impressive, but it's sometimes hard to understand the military jargon.

I'm going to get my liver enzymes warmed up tonight at "Belgian beer night" at Ramstein Air Base which is about 10-15 km away, then on to Munich and Oktoberfest this weekend.