He Was Heavy; He's My Brother
By Bob Drury, Posted Date: July 12, 2012
Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/war-memories?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-MensHealth-_-Content-BL-_-WoundedHeroMemories#ixzz21PvuODNH
Maybe you remember my old Marine pal Justin Constantine. That’s him on the left; kinda hard to forget. Sniper shot him to shit between Ramadi and Fallujah back in 2007. When I wrote about him for the mothership he was about halfway into the bazillion operations and medical procedures he’s had to undergo since.
Now Justin is a smash on the lecture circuit, works for one of the agencies where he’d have to kill me if I mentioned it by name, and is thinking about writing a book. To that end, he reached out to the Navy Corpsman, George Grant, who saved his life that day in the desert, and Grant wrote down his memories. Justin shared them with me, and they are so...well, moving I guess is the word I am looking for, I thought I’d share them with you—albeit with a wee bit of annotation courtesy of the Corpsman (just to underscore the acronym and terminology hell I go through each time I head downrange with these guys).
[Editor's note: Constantine relates his version of the story here, in Bob Drury's blog Men at War.]
Corpsman Grant’s recollections:
“We started the mission and had made 2 stops prior to the last one. Shortly after dismounting the vehicle, I walked a few yards forward of your vehicle, and turned my head as there was a shot fired. I can almost swear I saw you drop as I was taking cover. Betio 61 was between our position and yours and started running towards you. There was at least one more shot that caused him to seek cover behind a vehicle. Myself, CPL Heurta, the reporter, and I believe a Marine from the OP2 took cover behind a vehicle that was in front of us. CPL Heurta pushed the reporter into a vehicle for his safety. The vehicle pulled off and CPL Heurta let out a shout. He had been hit in the head with a round or a projectile, breaking his goggles but not injuring him.
At that point I ran towards your position. I believe Betio 6 was kneeling to your side, as you were face down. We turned you over and I saw that your eyes were open but you were unresponsive. There was a lot of damage to your face and there was blood and bubbles coming from what was left of your airway. To be honest, I thought you were dead. I then turned you onto your side, reached into my med pack and placed a nasal trumpet3 into your airway. I wasn’t sure whether you had a pulse or not, and you definitely weren’t breathing, so I radioed to Lcpl Beuhler to bring the vehicle to me and to tear down the spine board that was suspended in the back of the vehicle. I asked LT. Mueller to get the folded stretcher from one of the Marines and to bring it to me. We took away your gear and I decided that the trumpet was probably not going to be very effective with your facial injuries, and that I need to secure an airway for CPR. I again went into my pack and took out a Combi-tube4 and inserted it as the Marines prepared the stretcher. We then rolled you onto the stretcher and lifted you into my vehicle5 (one of the most difficult things in the world).
1 Betio 6 is the Battalion commander. Our unit, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, also goes by the call sign Betio (the island in the Pacific where they earned their mettle) Bastards. A battalion commander will always be called the unit's call sign, followed by the number 6.
2 An OP is an Out Post. Also called a Forward Operating Base (FOB). They battalion was fractured and sent to various key parts of the area of operations (AO) to perform missions and maintain control over the landscape.
3 A nasal trumpet, also known as a nasal pharyngeal airway, is a device that is inserted into the nose, in order to maintain an airway on a person with airway compromise.
4 A combi-tube is an intubation device that can be used in cases of facial trauma, burns, etc. It does not require visualization of the oropharynx (back of the mouth). It has two lumens at the proximal end, and 2 inflatable cuffs at the distal end. You simply insert it, inflate the two cuffs, and begin ventilation. If you don’t hear breath sounds in the first lumen, assume that you are in the esophagus, and ventilate the other lumen, which should put air into the lungs.
5 My vehicle, Victor 4, was modified to accommodate patients. The turret was closed, the catches on the rear doors were removed in order to make them open wider. There was a spine board zip-tied to the inner roof, there were Ambu-bags, and various other emergency management equipment placed at easy to reach locations. My driver, CPL Beuhler, was trained to prepare the back of the vehicle for me, whenever there was a casualty.
Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/war-memories?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-MensHealth-_-Content-BL-_-WoundedHeroMemories#ixzz21PvDZpYR
By Bob Drury, Posted Date: July 12, 2012
Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/war-memories?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-MensHealth-_-Content-BL-_-WoundedHeroMemories#ixzz21PvuODNH
Maybe you remember my old Marine pal Justin Constantine. That’s him on the left; kinda hard to forget. Sniper shot him to shit between Ramadi and Fallujah back in 2007. When I wrote about him for the mothership he was about halfway into the bazillion operations and medical procedures he’s had to undergo since.
Now Justin is a smash on the lecture circuit, works for one of the agencies where he’d have to kill me if I mentioned it by name, and is thinking about writing a book. To that end, he reached out to the Navy Corpsman, George Grant, who saved his life that day in the desert, and Grant wrote down his memories. Justin shared them with me, and they are so...well, moving I guess is the word I am looking for, I thought I’d share them with you—albeit with a wee bit of annotation courtesy of the Corpsman (just to underscore the acronym and terminology hell I go through each time I head downrange with these guys).
[Editor's note: Constantine relates his version of the story here, in Bob Drury's blog Men at War.]
Corpsman Grant’s recollections:
“We started the mission and had made 2 stops prior to the last one. Shortly after dismounting the vehicle, I walked a few yards forward of your vehicle, and turned my head as there was a shot fired. I can almost swear I saw you drop as I was taking cover. Betio 61 was between our position and yours and started running towards you. There was at least one more shot that caused him to seek cover behind a vehicle. Myself, CPL Heurta, the reporter, and I believe a Marine from the OP2 took cover behind a vehicle that was in front of us. CPL Heurta pushed the reporter into a vehicle for his safety. The vehicle pulled off and CPL Heurta let out a shout. He had been hit in the head with a round or a projectile, breaking his goggles but not injuring him.
At that point I ran towards your position. I believe Betio 6 was kneeling to your side, as you were face down. We turned you over and I saw that your eyes were open but you were unresponsive. There was a lot of damage to your face and there was blood and bubbles coming from what was left of your airway. To be honest, I thought you were dead. I then turned you onto your side, reached into my med pack and placed a nasal trumpet3 into your airway. I wasn’t sure whether you had a pulse or not, and you definitely weren’t breathing, so I radioed to Lcpl Beuhler to bring the vehicle to me and to tear down the spine board that was suspended in the back of the vehicle. I asked LT. Mueller to get the folded stretcher from one of the Marines and to bring it to me. We took away your gear and I decided that the trumpet was probably not going to be very effective with your facial injuries, and that I need to secure an airway for CPR. I again went into my pack and took out a Combi-tube4 and inserted it as the Marines prepared the stretcher. We then rolled you onto the stretcher and lifted you into my vehicle5 (one of the most difficult things in the world).
1 Betio 6 is the Battalion commander. Our unit, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, also goes by the call sign Betio (the island in the Pacific where they earned their mettle) Bastards. A battalion commander will always be called the unit's call sign, followed by the number 6. 2 An OP is an Out Post. Also called a Forward Operating Base (FOB). They battalion was fractured and sent to various key parts of the area of operations (AO) to perform missions and maintain control over the landscape.
3 A nasal trumpet, also known as a nasal pharyngeal airway, is a device that is inserted into the nose, in order to maintain an airway on a person with airway compromise.
4 A combi-tube is an intubation device that can be used in cases of facial trauma, burns, etc. It does not require visualization of the oropharynx (back of the mouth). It has two lumens at the proximal end, and 2 inflatable cuffs at the distal end. You simply insert it, inflate the two cuffs, and begin ventilation. If you don’t hear breath sounds in the first lumen, assume that you are in the esophagus, and ventilate the other lumen, which should put air into the lungs.
5 My vehicle, Victor 4, was modified to accommodate patients. The turret was closed, the catches on the rear doors were removed in order to make them open wider. There was a spine board zip-tied to the inner roof, there were Ambu-bags, and various other emergency management equipment placed at easy to reach locations. My driver, CPL Beuhler, was trained to prepare the back of the vehicle for me, whenever there was a casualty.
Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/war-memories?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-MensHealth-_-Content-BL-_-WoundedHeroMemories#ixzz21PvDZpYR
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