Spc. Matthew Mortensen (center) of Olathe, Kan., a combat medic with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, shows high spirits, with Pfc. Juan Ortega (left) of Belen, N.M., and Pfc. Jorge Cruz of Waterbury, Conn., after he was shot in the shoulder by sniper fire while on a presence patrol in Baghdad, Dec. 10. Mortensen was sent back to the United States for rehabilitation and recuperation and anticipates returning to his platoon in Iraq in February. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Ryan Nolan, 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div.)

“I was probably two feet from my door of my truck when I heard gun fire and it felt like someone just cracked me in the right shoulder blade with a hammer,” said Spc. Matthew Mortensen of Olathe, Kan.

The combat medic with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, was part of a presence patrol conducting a neighborhood search, Dec. 10, in an area historically known for weapons caches, rockets and mortars.

As the patrol walked the streets, a mounted element went from check point to check point providing security for them. Having reached the last check point, Staff Sgt. Manoj Prasad of Watertown, N.Y., and Mortensen dismounted to maneuver the trucks into a static security posture, when shots were fired.

“I saw a bullet hole in his shirt, and when I cut it open all I could see was blood,” said Prasad. “I looked for an exit wound and couldn’t find one.”

Being the medic on scene, Mortensen provided first aid care to himself after he was injured until he reached the Joint Security Station Loyalty aid station. Combat medics are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield with the primary role to provide medical treatment to wounded soldiers.

“After I was shot, I had my platoon sergeant examine for a wound and he found one on my right shoulder blade,” said Mortensen. “Then I jumped into the truck, threw off my kit because I couldn’t reach my right side with my kit on. After I took it off, I started cleaning up some of the blood with gauze then I used the package for the gauze and created a pressure dressing over the wound just in case it penetrated my chest cavity. I didn’t know what happened to the bullet so that was the only thing I was really worried about”

After the initial treatment, Mortensen was medically evacuated to another JSS. Mortensen kept his composure throughout the event and was able to provide Prasad with the proper medevac procedures for entering the JSS.

The day following the incident, Mortensen was awarded a Purple Heart and a Combat Medical badge while he was in the hospital at Victory Base Complex.

The Purple Heart is awarded to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The Combat Medical Badge is a decoration of the United States Army which was first created in January 1945. The badge is awarded to any member of the Army Medical Department, pay grade colonel or below, who are assigned or attached to a medical unit (company or smaller size) which provides medical support to a ground combat arms unit during any period in which the unit was engaged in active ground combat.

Mortensen was sent back to the United States for rehabilitation and recuperation. After spending a month back in the States, he anticipates he will return to his platoon in Iraq sometime in February.

DVIDS
Story by Sgt. Jennie Burrett

Pfc. Takeysha Washington, a medic assigned to 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, measures an infant’s vital signs—pulse, temperature and blood pressure—during a medical civil action program in Abu Amer, Iraq, March 28. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Tami Hillis)

Residents of Abu Amer, a small village in the Wasit province of Iraq, received medical assistance March 28 from Coalition forces during a medical civil action program designed to provide basic primary care.

Using a school as a makeshift clinic, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, attached to 1st Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, secured the area before announcing, via loudspeaker, the opportunity for residents to receive health care and humanitarian assistance.

Once word of the MEDCAP was broadcast, people began to pour in from the streets, forming a line just outside the school.

Maj. Howard Curlin, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion surgeon; Capt. Jacob Turnquist, 4th BCT surgeon; and Maj. Marilyn Lazarz, an Army public health nurse with Company B, 415th Civil Affairs, led the team examining, diagnosing, treating and advising the patients, along with the help of nine medics.

At the initial screening station, combat medics, assisted by translators, interviewed each patient for medical history and previous treatments and noted his or her ailment on a slip of paper. Then the medics measured each patient’s vital signs—pulse, temperature and blood pressure.

“The locals who were seen at the medical event were grateful for the medical care provided to them by the doctors, medics and nurse,” said Lazarz, who has been a public health nurse for 18 years. “Coalition forces continue to build relationships with the locals and continue to make a difference in their everyday lives.”

As the day continued, medical personnel saw 212 patients, ranging from infants to elderly, with various ailments. Medical issues ranged from common joint and back pain to infections and gastrointestinal disorders.

“We’re only equipped with a limited supply of medications,” said Turnquist, a pediatrician by trade. “We know going in there that we’re potentially going to see hundreds of people.”

Most of the medications handed out were over-the-counter medicines, said the Rockford, Ill. native. Cold medicines, multivitamins, antibiotics and topical medicines for rashes were also distributed.

Each patient received an evaluation, treatment, medicine if needed and humanitarian assistance—food, soccer balls, beanie babies, candy—donated by various Soldiers in the support battalion, said Capt. Casey Woody, commander of Company C, 703rd BSB.

“We went in there assessing what the people were coming in with, what complaints they had, what their age range was and what their demographics were,” Turnquist said. “That information itself is helpful hopefully down the road when we can provide that to the Ministry of Health to see if they can get more long-term medical support to that area.”

Overall, Woody felt the MEDCAP achieved its objective.

“I’m proud of my Soldiers and how they conducted themselves,” said the father of two from Plymouth, Mich. “If you can help a person, it’s a good feeling. I think we’re doing a lot of things, and we’re working in the right direction with the ePRT (embedded Provincial Reconstruction team) and civil affairs … We know we’re not going to fix this problem in a year, but we want to get them on the right start.”

Task Force Marne
By Sgt. 1st Class Tami Hillis