The Unseen Wounded: Back in the USA

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Back in the USA

Present location confirmed at Andrews Air Force Base hospital, staying overnight, scheduled to depart approximately xxxxx tomorrow morning, arriving Pope AFB approximately xxxxx. Flight times to be confirmed in morning.
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We spoke to Womack Army Medical Center – the hospital at Fort Bragg and they are also tracking Jewel’s return. They show her scheduled to depart Germany on 28 June at xxxx (Greenwich Mean Time). This translates to approximately xxxx EDT. This time jives with what MAJ W describes below. Fort Bragg also shows her scheduled to arrive at Andrews AFB at xxxxxPM Greenwich Mean Time which equates to xxxxxxPM EDT. Then Fort Bragg believes she’ll be scheduled for a flight to Fort Bragg on the following day – Wednesday, 29 JUN – time To Be Determined.

Of course, all of this data is subject to change. My folks here will continue to track her progress home.

I’ve also spoken to Department of the Army Casualty affairs Once Jewel arrives in the states, her attending physician (either at Walter Reed or perhaps Fort Bragg) will verify her condition and determine if/when family members should be invited to join her. Once he makes this determination, family members can be officially invited to join her at whichever hospital she gets assigned to (we assume it will be Fort Bragg).

I will continue to check with Fort Bragg’s medical folks to ensure they are giving the same statuses that Landstuhl is giving to MAJ Watson. So far, both ends of this medical pipeline seem to be telling the same story so I’m fairly confident that the data is accurate. We look forward to receiving Jewel at Fort Bragg and attending to her family’s needs as well.

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I have tried about eight or ten times today, but I have been unable to get through to either Jewel’s room or to her nurses station. II did get through to the air movement coordination section, and confirmed she is manifested on tomorrow’s flight. Her TRACES site number is -------------------; this is the tracking number they will use for her entire move from Germany through Andrews AFT to Womack Army Hospital on Ft. Bragg.

The flight is scheduled to take off from Germany at 1400 local time tomorrow. Flights to the United States from Germany last eight to nine hours, so although they cannot give me an ETA in the U.S., it should be about 1700 (5:00pm) Eastern Standard Time tomorrow when she lands in the D.C. area (if my calculations are right). This is just an estimate, and in Germany tonight they cannot provide any information on how long it will be before she moves from Andrews AFB to Ft. Bragg.

On another note, all of Jewel’s personal belongings were inventories by a specially appointed officer and a witness, and have been boxed up and mailed back to Ft. Bragg. They will not beat her back, but she should get all her things in 10 – 14 days.
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Just a quick note this time. I just spoke with your daughter again, and I was glad to hear her sounding better again today than yesterday. There is no major change in her condition, which is that she is stable and still improving.

No change from last night – it still looks as if she’ll fly from Germany to the US on Tuesday. They’ve told her she will fly into Andrews AFB outside of D.C., which is standard. She’ll likely spend a day or so there then move to Ft. Bragg. That’s all I have to report today, but I’ll call again tomorrow to see if I can get precise movement times and information.

CPT George from our rear detachment should be in contact with you by now and helping you on all your needs on the Ft. Bragg end; please let me know if you have not heard from her or someone on the U.S. side to help you.
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I just got off the phone with the duty nurse on Jewel’s ward. Unfortunately she will not be on the flight tomorrow, and it looks like the next flight will be Tuesday. There were two separate reasons she did not get on the flight.

First is the blood count I wrote about before. Due to the injuries and the surgery she had a bit of blood loss and her red blood count was not high enough this morning to qualify her for a high altitude flight. (anemia) They gave her blood this afternoon, but did not do a new test for her “H&H” count until about four hours ago. The results of that test have not come back, so when the manifest closed she was not eligible to fly.

Second is the fact that the hospital in Germany is very full right now due to a surge in injured soldiers over the last week. The manifest is based on a combination of “First in – first out”, and on seriousness of injuries; Jewel was low on both criteria so even had she been qualified would most likely have not got on the flight tomorrow. It is possible they will request another air evacuation mission before Tuesday based on the number of patients, but Tuesday is the next one going for sure.

I asked the nurse specifically is this was basically an administrative decision or represented a downturn for her condition, and the answer was administrative. She is still doing well. The nurse said she was eating and talking several times today and was still upbeat. Her condition has improved, she is still stable, and her prognosis is still for a full recovery.

The hospital orthopedic surgeon also examined her today. They now think that her so there is clearly some damage of some type, but based on the improvements today they think it may be less than a break. Because she was initially expected to fly tomorrow they did not schedule further treatment for her leg and arm, but tomorrow morning she should be re-evaluated by the orto specialist. I will continue to call at least once in the morning and once in the afternoon until she flies for the United States.
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spcjewlelbefore

Yesterday I got a call from the Captain at Ft. Bragg in charge of helping visitors. She was full of good information on housing and visitor info. She also told us that Jewel had her leg re-broken and set yesterday. I told Mom they would have to do this as there was no word of the broken bone being set and it had been more than 3 days. Young bones heal quickly. She was annoyed that I was right.

The leg was diagnosed as broken on the first day of this story. Instead of treating her in a timely manner they had to re-injure our soldier, slowing her recovery further. This costs us more in the long run by extending time it will take for her to heal. She was kept in Germany, as far as I can tell, in a drugged stupor, in a US hospital for 5 days and no one there could set her leg before it began to heal wrong. IMHO it is because a broken leg in a young body is a pitifully tiny injury compared to the kids with amputations and internal wounds.

She was seen by the EMT's in Iraq and has been at the hospital in Germany since the 23rd. In 5 days no doctor has had the time to set a broken leg before it began to heal.

This tells me that:

They are too busy with more seriously wounded soldiers.
We are not being told the full count of the wounded, more than they can treat properly
There are not enough doctors available to treat the wounded we do have.
We are NOT taking care of our own.

Jewel was the soldier closest to a mortar round because she was in Iraq and doing her job as a soldier, performing a duty for her country. She was wounded in an action that has received, as far as I can tell, one tiny paragraph on one page on the internet that mentions the mortar fire that hit her.

"At about the same time as the three car bombs were going off in al-Karradah, Iraqi Resistance forces fired several mortar shells into the al-Jadiriyah district of Baghdad, police sources claim that the barrage inflicted no Iraqi casualties."

The mate and I worked with Jewel's folks trying to figure best ways to get someone to her. I keep forgetting we have animals and we could not get a dog sitter so I could not go. Her step mom is told that she can't get family emergency leave for this, we don't know why.

The math was getting easier. The mate took the bike and rolled out this morning. He has ridden through storms on and off all day but is about 5 hours out of Ft. Bragg. He should be there by 2 pm tomorrow. She should be there about 1 pm. Pretty good timing!

It's been hard to work to day. My mind was flying home with the soldier. I have found more links for you to puruse at your leisure. Educate yourself then use the links in the sidebar to express your opinion to a Congressman or Representitive