On Distant Battlefields, Survival Odds Rise Sharply By: Alan Cullison Presented By: Kendal McCann and Billy Painter

Afghanistan and Iraq war statistics Afghanistan- 55,000 U.S. soldiers 32,000 non-U.S. NATO forces Casualties – 1043 U.S. soldiers 680 non-U.S. soldiers Iraq- 98,000 U.S. soldiers All other nations have withdrawn their troops from Iraq Casualties - 4,390 U.S. soldiers 316 non-U.S. soldiers

Past Wartime Medical Advancements Civil war: Doctors learned the best way to amputate limbs World War 1: Development of typhoid vaccine World War 2: Mass use of penicillin Korea and Vietnam: Medical evacuation by helicopter All which have been transferred back to the US to save lives

Recent Medical advancements New ways to control bleeding (QuickClot Combat Gauze) Sophisticated portable X-ray and MRI machines New equipment to guide catheters through veins New techniques recommended by physicians years ago are now being tested on a larger scale due to the severity of most injuries Wounded soldiers are surviving at a greater rate than ever before in the history of war ▫95% survival rate of those who live long enough to receive medial attention

A Typical Day for a Military Doctor Dr. John York: Interventional Radiologist Specialist Alwin injured from an IED Shrapnel grazed one of the vertebral arteries that fed his brain and was leaking into his lungs Dr. York then performed a breakthrough medical technique where he snaked a tube from an artery in Alwin’s leg until it reached his neck and the device popped open and blocked the blood from the ballooning artery

A Typical Day for a Military Doctor Continued When most surgeons would have amputated one infrantryman’s leg after a scan showed large clusters of shrapnel in his thigh and a splintered femur Dr. York shot dye into the soldier’s arteries to find the leg could be saved Dr. York used nickel-and-titanium filter into one of the soldier’s veins just below the heart to keep errant blood clots from flowing into his heart and lungs Through this procedure the soldier was not only spared his leg, but the trauma of having his leg amputated during war

Conclusion One positive that comes out of war can be seen as the medical advancements that arise during wartime Throughout the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with past wartimes, new techniques have been developed and have saved millions of soldiers and civilians lives’ "Medical textbooks are being rewritten as we speak,” says Sgt. Anthony Reich, the U.S. Air Force's equivalent of a paramedic

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