TRAUMA REGISTRY LEADS TO NEW G.I. GEAR

Troops in Iraq have rush-​​ordered thou­sands of Kevlar shoul­der guards and blast­proof sun­glasses. The rea­son why: a newly-​​formed Combat Trauma Registry that tracks exactly where and how sol­diers get wounded.
Using that Registry, Lt. Col. Kelly Bal, an ortho­pe­dic sur­geon with the Army’s 82nd Airborne, first detected the pat­tern of wounds to exposed shoul­ders, the Christian Science Montior explains.

Colonel Bal jerry-​​rigged a Kevlar groin pro­tec­tor from a typ­i­cal armored vest to fit around the upper arm, says McDonald. A pro­to­type saved a sol­dier. The Army quickly bought 6,000, some 2,000 of which are now being used by marines. The Marines have ordered 25,000 more shoul­der pro­tec­tors.
A sim­i­lar story sur­rounds the wide use of Wiley-​​X sun­glasses with bal­lis­tic lenses and padded frames, and tough­ened gog­gles — a direct result of blast wounds to the eyes from IEDs…
Experts are also work­ing on a bet­ter earplug that per­mits fre­quen­cies like voices while pro­tect­ing against the noise of a nearby grenade blast. Surgeons here also expect more cov­er­age of neck and lower abdomen areas. “The future is min­ing that data­base,” 1st Marine Expeditionary Force chief sur­geon Capt. Eric McDonald says, “to find the places where ben­e­fits [of new mea­sures] out­weigh risks.”

April 29th, 2004 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.