Forward Surgical Team first to respond

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Burns, shrapnel wounds, and gunshot wounds: if Soldiers can be injured in combat, the 541st Forward surgical team can fix them. The team is the first to respond once the patient is brought to Forward Operating Base Orgun-E, Paktika province, Afghanistan.    

Whether U.S. Soldiers, Afghan uniformed service-members, or Afghan civilians, the FST moves quickly into action, treating any injury a patient suffers. 

Seeing a lot of trauma patients, the FST’s primary focus is to, “get a patient who is injured stabilized and sent up to the next level of care,” said U.S Army 1st Lt. Lloyd Mason, 541st FST executive officer. 

“This is a very unique set-up,” Mason said. “In this one building we have a FST and also an aid station, which you don’t normally see.”    

Usually an aid station and FST are separate, but at FOB Orgun-E, the two work together. The 1-187^th aid station handles routine care, such as sick-call, while the FST handles emergency care.       

If on-the-spot surgery is needed, the team has the ability to conduct it and get a patient stabilized enough to send to a better equipped facility for more advanced medical care. 

An FST consists of about 20 Soldiers, and key members of the team at Orgun-E include surgeons, nurses, medics, and other medical specialists.  

The Advanced Trauma Life Support portion of the team sees each patient prior to entering of surgery, if surgery is needed. 

“Whatever comes through the door, we see them first,” said U.S. Army Capt. Jessica Schwinck, 541st FST ATLS officer-in-charge. “We do all of the patient’s initial stuff; we find out what their vital signs are, we find out if they need any initial life saving treatments, and if so, it gets done in ATLS.”       

Both Mason and Schwinck said that it is gratifying in knowing that they are helping the people that come through the doors of the FST. 

“I went to Iraq in 2004 and that’s where I learned to really like trauma nursing, so that’s why I became an emergency nurse,” Schwinck said. “I really enjoy this job, being able to put people back together.”