BEMOWO PISKIE, Poland--When minutes can mean the difference between life and death for soldiers, combat medics know they don't have time to waste.
"Seriously injured soldiers need treatment just as soon as we can deliver it," said 2nd Lt. Philip Piontkowski, Medical Platoon leader and Battle Group Poland medical operations officer. "Our battle group is frequently spread out over a large area training, so preparing and rolling out the gate for evacuation must be a reflex reaction in order to get to the patient as quickly as possible. Our main goal is to transport the casualty from the point of injury to the hospital within what we call the 'Golden Hour.'"
In order to hone that muscle memory, the Battle Group Poland medical team trains on proper emergency medical evacuation processes weekly.
"Primarily, the training is designed for the battle group aid station to test our internal medevac systems to see how long it would take us to react to a call for assistance," Sgt. Joshua Hadley, combat medic, said after the team recently completed an emergency response drill at Bemowo Piskie Training Area. "It's absolutely critical for us to acknowledge our times between phases of care in an emergency situation, and make adjustments where necessary to reduce our response time without affecting our standards of care."
All that hard work pays off in the end, ultimately benefiting that casualty in the field who relies on the quick response of the battle group medical team to save their life.
"The team showed mastery of the fundamentals of treatment and the execution of communication tasks. They completed this mission safely and to standard from start to finish. Their performance in regards to time will build the framework for our training plan in the future," Hadley said.
While the medical platoon is experienced at handling medical needs for infantry soldiers, working in a foreign country and remote area like BPTA does present its challenges.
"The key when working in a foreign country is having a solid relationship with host nation emergency services and being able to effectively communicate patient information. As long as the medics are properly educated, medical care can be easily conveyed across language barriers," Piontkowski said. "We are quickly learning how to operate within the Polish healthcare system. We have developed a close relationship with the 108th Military Hospital in Elk, Poland, and send emergent cases and soldiers requiring additional examination (X-ray, lab/blood testing) to them."
Working together within a multinational environment is second nature to the battle group medical team which is comprised of 26 U.S. combat medics, one physician assistant and squadron surgeon; two U.K. medics and a physician and three Romanian medics.
"We each treat our own patients, but all work together in the aid station and when pulling field medical coverage, which is building us into an even stronger medical team," Piontkowski said.
Despite any language or cultural differences, they all understand the universal mission--to take care of the sick, injured and wounded.
"Many of our non-commissioned officers have been previously deployed and are able to draw on those experiences to teach the entire platoon the right way to operate in this type of setting," he said.
Training and re-training their medical skills is paramount to the team's success, according to Piontkowski. They support the unit during each field exercise, while continuously executing their own training in MEDEVAC, casualty treatment, and mass casualty response. Aid station NCOICs and doctors train the junior medics on treatment skills daily. The senior line medics also teach combat life saver classes to the troops in order to certify as many Battle Group Soldiers as possible, thus increasing the Battle Group's medical capabilities.
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