On March 18th, American military health personnel in Bagram removed a 4.5 mm high explosive incendiary round lodged in the skull of an Afghan National Army soldier. The photo above is real.
“Initially I thought it was a spent end of some sort of larger round,” said Colonel Terreri, who is also deployed from the Wilford Hall Medical Center.
“I saw that it was not solid metal on the inside,” he added. “I then looked at the scout image and could see there was an air gap on one end and what looked almost like the tip of a tube of lipstick at the end and decided this didn’t look quite right.”
Colonel Terreri, a native of Tonopah, Nev., explained when reviewing scans, the radiologist may come across images that reveal information for which the surgical team must be prepared for, and a unexploded ordnance is one of those cases.
He immediately went to inform the neurosurgeon who had already left to prepare for surgery.
“I went directly to the operating room and evacuated all unnecessary personnel,” Major Bini said. “I had the anesthesiologist remain in the room in his Interceptor Body Armor to monitor the patient.”
Major Bini then notified his chain of command and the explosives ordnance disposal team and began to secure areas of the hospital to protect patients and staff.
To add another twist to this already intense situation, Major Bini explained there was another surgical team operating on a patient with multiple life threatening injuries in another operating room and they couldn’t safely evacuate as the patient was in critical condition.
“It was kind of a case of Murphy’s Law coming into play,” said Tech. Sgt. William Carter, the 455th EMDG/TF MED-E NCO in charge of central sterile processing and a medical technician deployed from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. “We had an (operating room) full of trauma cases and we had people in other rooms who were busy taking care of patients and it was really an all hands on deck event.”
Sergeant Carter explained one of the greatest difficulties the teams in the other operating rooms faced was the ability to pass through the cordoned area to gain lab work and blood products.
“We donned our IBA and made sure the individuals in the other operating room did not have to pass through the area and had everything they needed,” he said.
He referred to it as a tag team effort and the team ensured their ultimate goal, which is to save lives, could still be accomplished.
When the explosive ordnance disposal team arrived at the hospital, Major Bini took them to review the CAT scan images. He then proceeded to the operating room, donned his IBA and removed the round from the patient’s head.
After the unexploded ordnance was removed from the patient and given to EOD, the areas were reopened to normal operating room traffic. Major Bini turned the operation over to the neurosurgeon and the operating room team to complete the operation.
Christopher R. Albon is a political science Ph.D. specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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