Dr. Brendan Patterson is the chairman of Orthopedic Surgery at Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland, and the head of the largest orthopedic trauma team in the region. But he's about to take a break from victims of car crashes and industrial accidents: Instead, he'll be turning his attention to the victims of IED's as one of about 20 orthopedic surgeons from across the country headed to Landstuhl, Germany, where American soldiers with war injuries are treated. Patterson says he hopes that the knowledge he gains during his two-week trip will have a lasting impact in ER's back home.
PATTERSON: I hope to be able to transfer what I've learned in Germany to those that are training at Metro Health and I also hope that we learn that this is a very challenging burdon that we place on our young people and we have to be extremely judicious about our use of conflict as a means to resolve a disagreement
But while military conflict may not be the best way to solve disagreements, it does provide an excellent teaching ground for physicians specializing in trauma. Patterson says that many of todays emergency medical procedures are an outgrowth of things learned in war. For example, the helicopter transport that is routinely used in the US today for injured victims is a direct outgrowth of military evacuation procedures. Likewise, Patterson says what physicians learn from treating and rehabilitating military patients with devastating injuries and amputations will eventually benefit non-war-related injuries as well.
Gretchen Cuda, 90.3