German hospitals help GIs with specialty care

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German hospitals help GIs with specialty care
By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, December 10, 2007

LANDSTUHL, Germany — After suffering severe injuries from a roadside bomb blast in Iraq on Nov. 9, Army Staff Sgt. Jonathon L. Martin died on Thanksgiving. The 33-year-old soldier, husband and father of three passed away at a university hospital in Regensburg, Germany, almost a four-hour drive east of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

Nearly all U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are treated at Landstuhl, the largest American hospital outside the U.S., before being flown to the States. But some of them are treated at German hospitals when highly specialized care is required.

Martin suffered a punctured lung, lost his left leg, and broke his pelvis, arm, and nose from the explosion, according to a Toledo, Ohio, TV station. Martin initially was treated at Landstuhl but was transferred to Regensburg because he was on a device called the Novalung, developed at the Regensburg hospital.

War wounded are sent to other hospitals around Germany about once or twice a month when a casualty needs critical sub-specialty care — such as angiography (blood vessel studies), heart surgery or brain surgery — that is not available at Landstuhl. The hospitals are in Homburg, Koblenz and Ludwigshafen.

Also, coalition troops initially taken to Landstuhl are sent to German hospitals for burn care.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50867