By Janice Neumann
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — LaTina Kapraun watched intently as a trauma surgeon sutured the diaphragm of a 25-year-old car crash victim in the emergency department at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The procedure is of special interest to Kapraun, a sergeant and medic in the Army National Guard, because she could be deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq where she may have to deal with similar injuries in the field.
“It helps desensitize you,” said Kapraun, explaining that soldiers need to avoid freezing up when dealing with trauma victims so they can react quickly to their needs. “Granted, it’s a controlled environment, but you get to see the person’s bowels open.”
Kapraun, who works for an ambulance company in Metamora, near Peoria, and Capt. Sarah Mielke, a nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, who is in the Air National Guard, spent six hours recently making rounds with Dr. Steven Salzman, a trauma surgeon at Christ Medical Center, as part of the Advanced Trauma Training Program. The five-day program, which is managed by Rush University Medical Center with Christ and four other trauma centers, helps prepare medics in the Illinois National Guard and Air National Guard for treating troops in combat.
The program includes lectures, a mannequin simulation lab with a “virtual patient” and lab training at Rush; observation at a trauma center; and accompanying Chicago Fire Department medics in an ambulance. Techniques they learn include managing airways, controlling bleeding, managing burns and applying traction splints.
At Christ Medical Center, Salzman showed Kapraun and Mielke how to do initial evaluations and operations on gunshot and stabbing victims, and follow-ups in the intensive-care unit. He then offered tips on how to improvise when hospital equipment is not available in the field.
Even though the two soldiers could not perform procedures on patients, Kapraun and Mielke said observing others was helpful.
“It gives you a better appreciation for the actual anatomy,” Mielke said.
Salzman showed the two how to use a vacuum sponge to temporarily close an abdomen or place over open wounds on patients’ arms and legs to help the area heal faster. In a combat hospital or out in the field, where such equipment wouldn’t be available, a moistened towel could be used, he said.
To deal with a pelvic fracture or bleeding wound, he demonstrated how to tie a sheet tightly around the area to stop the bleeding.
“A lot of times in combat support hospitals you don’t have that stuff available, so you can do makeshift things. You can accomplish a lot of things with the bare minimum,” Salzman said. “You just have to have some sort of ingenuity and know what you’re looking for.”
Salzman said he is rewriting the Christ Medical Center portion of the workshop curriculum to include more ways that military medics can improvise techniques in the field.
Christ Medical Center has offered trauma training for military medics since 2007, except for when Department of Defense funding was unavailable in part of 2008 and 2009. Up to six medics at a time attend trauma training during the program, which also will be held this month and January.
The workshop is supplemental to the training medics receive in the military and gives them more hands-on and updated training.
Lynn Curran, a nurse educator at Christ Medical Center who helps coordinate the medic students, said being able to observe a trauma center is important for the medics because it offers a step-by-step approach on dealing with patients.
Kapraun, who previously was stationed in Kuwait, said that knowledge would definitely come in handy if she is deployed again. “You don’t get this training anywhere else,” Kapraun said. “You actually get to see what (the injury) is, so you know what to look for.”
Copyright 2009 Chicago Tribune Company