Medics who treated Afghan knife victim receive medals

The medical unit who helped treat an Afghan boy who arrived at the Field Hospital in Camp Bastion with a knife in his head have been awarded medals for their work in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan medals were presented to the Army medics from 208 (Liverpool) Territorial Army Field Hospital on 8 March 2008, officially recognising their achievements in treating injured soldiers and local civilians during their three month command of the military field hospital at Camp Bastion. Deployed to Helmand Province between July and October 2007, it was the first time since WWII that the unit had deployed on operations.

As family, friends and military colleagues looked on, the medics of 208 Field Hospital - which has its HQ in Liverpool and additional training bases in Ellesmere Port, Blackpool and Lancaster - marched onto the parade square at Altcar training camp, Merseyside.

Brigadier Tom O'Brien, Deputy Commander Theatre Troops, presented medals to about 50 members of the field hospital, before the soldiers and their guests moved to the Officers' Mess at Altcar for a celebratory buffet lunch.

It was a busy tour for the medics, who juggle the demands of everyday civilian life and 'day jobs' with a commitment to train with the military in their spare time. And they were given a true baptism of fire on day one when the boy with a knife in his head was brought in.

212 Field Hospital were handing over their responsibilities to the new lead unit, 208 Field Hospital, on 14 July 2007, when the boy, who was still conscious and able to walk, entered the field hospital, accompanied by his father.

Major Stephen Gallacher, aged 49, of 208 Field Hospital, was carrying out his handover duties as the senior Accident and Emergency nurse at Camp Bastion, with his counterpart in 212 Field Hospital, when the boy was brought in. Recalling the incident, he said:

"The ten-year-old boy had been in his father's shop. His father had had an argument with a customer who left the shop and came back with a knife. The customer tried to stab the father, then the child tried to get in the way and he got stabbed."

The knife became embedded in the boy's head and his father brought him to the military base in Kandahar at about 1400 hrs, pleading for help. The Canadian medical facility on camp took an X-ray, and the father and son were then flown to Camp Bastion where the British military field hospital had the capability and specialists to be able to deal with neurosurgery.

Major Gallacher continued:

"When the child reached us, he walked in. He was still conscious and talking. He was sedated and that night he was operated on. We knew how the knife was sitting because we had the X-ray.

"The knife had come in at an angle and gone down behind his eye and had penetrated the front of his brain. To have simply pulled the knife out would have been a disaster because you wouldn't have known what damage was behind it."

Surgeons of 212 Field Hospital operated on the boy - their last operation before handing over to 208 Field Hospital, who administered the aftercare. The facilities and skills of the British medics saved this boy's life. Within days he was back on his feet and well enough to return home with his father.

"It was a horrendous sight. I just didn't think he would survive," said Major Gallacher. "But he was soon off the life-support machine and was up and about within days. It was just amazing."

Major Gallacher, a father-of-four from Caernarfon, North Wales, added:

"Our three-month tour in Afghanistan was extremely hard, but very successful. The tempo of operations had increased dramatically while we were there and as a result the workload for us in the field hospital increased dramatically. It was quite relentless.

"We saw a wide variety of injuries and, overall, we did very well. Some of the equipment out there is well ahead of the game. For example, we were using instant digital X-rays - portable machines which meant we could see X-rays in two minutes, which in a UK hospital might take 30 minutes. Don't forget, that's in a tent in the desert!"

The field hospital which during 208's deployment was sited in a tent has since been moved to a solid build facility.

Corporal Emma Rose, aged 22, from 208 (Liverpool) Territorial Army Field Hospital, also received her Afghanistan medal. Corporal Rose is a staff nurse at the intensive care unit of Blackpool Victoria Hospital, but has also been a TA medic for five years. She said:

"It's hard to put into words what Afghanistan was like. I feel quite proud and emotional when I think back about it now.

“I worked in the intensive care unit of the field hospital, which had four beds. We treated coalition soldiers and Afghan civilians. Although the basic nursing skills are similar to what I do in Blackpool, the actual job and working environment in Afghanistan was very different.

"We were well equipped, with all the latest 'mod-cons'. I slept in a tent with eight people in it and, to be honest, when I got home I felt quite lonely!"