Beyond the Purple Heart — Continuity of Care for the Wounded in Iraq

You can hear the usual hum of the emergency room, and all the familiar beeps of monitors in the operating room provide a backdrop for medical teams boasting the usual collection of skills and following the typical team approach to injured patients. But beyond the generic hospital buzz, the background noises are unusual. The whoosh and explosion of incoming mortars and the loud whine of the turbo engines of Blackhawk helicopters bringing patients, often directly from the point of wounding, distinguish the military combat support hospitals and forward surgical teams in Iraq from the ERs and ORs back home. Different . . .