Army Doctors Scrambling, Report Says (12/5/04)

Army Doctors Scrambling, Report Says
The military medical system has been overwhelmed by the scope and severity of injuries among troops, a health expert writes.
By Esther Schrader, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — A shortage of surgeons to treat the wounded in Iraq has left Army medical teams in the country scrambling to handle the largest number of military casualties since the Vietnam War, the New England Journal of Medicine reports today.

The Army has fewer than 50 general surgeons and 15 orthopedic surgeons in Iraq at any one time to serve more than 138,000 troops. Despite the numbers, advances in battlefield surgical techniques and care mean a greater percentage of soldiers wounded in Iraq are surviving than in any previous American conflict.

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