THE COMBAT LIFESAVER

The Purpose of the Combat Lifesaver:

The combat lifesaver is a bridge between the self-aid/buddy aid (first aid ) training given all soldiers during basic training and the medical training given to the combat medic. The combat lifesaver is a non-medical soldier who provides lifesaving measures as a secondary mission as his primary (combat) mission allows. The combat lifesaver may also assist the combat medic in providing care and preparing casualties for evacuation when the combat lifesaver has no combat duties to perform.

Normally, one member of each squad, team, crew, or equivalent-sized unit will be trained as a combat lifesaver. (auth. note-every man on my 11 man team is a trained combat lifesaver already and we are going through the training again).

A major advantage of the combat lifesaver is that he will probably be nearby if a member of his squad or crew is injured. It may take a combat medic several minutes or longer to reach the casualty, especially if there are several other casualties and/or the medic is at another location. The combat lifesaver is trained to provide immediate care that can save a casualties life, such as stopping severe bleeding, administering intravenous fluids to control shock, and performing needle chest decompression for a casualty with tension pneumothorax.

-from the Combat Lifesaver Course: Student Self Study (except for authors note)

Medical training for the next four days. Among other things, I was allowed to be one of three people who inserted a nasal-pharyngeal airway on a real person. The video is below. You may remember the "patient" as Captain Bryan Taylor who has become a frequent guest star on this blog. He recently co-starred as the pilot of the Cessna a few posts ago.