|
|
| Evidence of the threat mines pose is this D-6 Bulldozer that was doing road work in Pailin when it struck a bamboo tilt rod connected to TM-46 Anti-Tank mines buried a meter deep. The driver survived but suffered significant internal injuries. |
|
Medical Training and Medical Support
Since 2001, SOCPAC deployments to Cambodia for HMA missions have included teaching basic and advanced trauma management medical training, explosives safety and storage, and training development. The most recent HMA mission took place from 26 January through 6 March 2004. In addition to the training, CMAC received more than 100 excess U.S. military M-35 2-ton trucks through the EDA program and funds to refurbish a maintenance depot.
 |
| Typical road conditions U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation personnel encounter during demining site visits in the wet season. |
|
 |
| U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation personnel preparing to cross a river to conduct a counter narcotics assessment speak with representatives of the non-government organization (NGO) “Wild Aid.” The NGO has just rescued exotic animals from traffickers in Phnom Penh, a serious problem in Cambodia. |
In addition to HMA projects, U.S. military doctors treat war-related blast injuries, such as those caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance, under the Blast Resuscitation and Victims Assistance (BRAVA) missions, BRAVA teams also treat cleft lips, burns (fire and sulfuric acid), club feet, and perform orthopedic surgery.
Three BRAVA missions have occurred in Cambodia. In 2001, U.S. military medical personnel from Hawaii-based Tripler Army Medical Center worked at the Italian NGO hospital Emergency in Battambang Province, where the majority of fighting took place during the 1979-1996 civil war. In 2002, U.S. Pacific Air Force (PACAF), another USPACOM component command, sent medical personnel to work at Rose Charities Cambodia in Phnom Penh and the Angkor Hospital for Children (Friends Without A Border) in Siem Reap.
In 2003, 17 members from the [U.S.] Pacific Regional Medical Command’s Special Medical Augmentation Response Team (SMART) used BRAVA to test new concepts and practices for forward-area surgery and response teams. The SMART operated in Pailin, the semi-autonomous region of western Cambodia that was the last bastion Khmer Rouge fighters held until a negotiated peace took effect in 1996. The area is still predominately populated by former Khmer Rouge. The BRAVA mission commander, Lt. Col. Dallas Homas, a reconstruction and plastic surgery specialist, chose Pailin, because it has the highest landmine casualty rate per capita in Cambodia. He also wanted his team to treat recent landmine victims.
 |
| (L-R) Khem Sophoan, Director General of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC); U.S. Ambassador Ray; and Hem Vandy, Demining Unit #3 Manager, visit a CMAC demining site in Pailin. |
SMART employed its own operating suites, consisting of two air-mobile tents, in the courtyard of the Pailin Provincial Hospital. Over 14 days, the BRAVA team conducted 101 surgeries and saw over 350 outpatients in the two tents. The patients included eight Cambodians injured by landmines.
The SMART team’s first patient was a landmine victim. Doctors saved the mangled hand of Hem Sophal, a 23-year-old farmer whose hoe detonated a Chinese-made Type 72 anti-personnel mine. The blast effect, coupled with the way he held the hoe, caused the farm implement to cut his hand in two. The force of the blast also caused the hoe to become a projectile, which not only sliced through his hand but also struck him in the chest, puncturing his lung. Without the prompt advanced medical treatment from the SMART team, he would have died.
In addition to the eight landmine victims, the BRAVA team treated trauma injuries from vehicle accidents, sulfuric acid burns, goiters, cleft lips, hernias, orthopedic problems, and a variety of tropical illnesses. The team also treated many old wartime injuries including removal of shrapnel imbedded for years in victims’ bodies, and cosmetic surgery to repair disfiguring scars.
