WEBVTT

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let me just have you take your first

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and last name of the correct spelling

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please ? Absolutely . It's David ,

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David Steinbruner , S T E I

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N B R U N E R

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and then have your title ? Captain and

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or doctor . Okay . And you're with the

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10th Combat support hospital since

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combat support hospital , correct ? The

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abbreviation is Cash Cash . What cash

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stand for ? What ? That acronym that is

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its Combat Support Hospital . Just

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shorten TSH . Perfect . And just work

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out for me briefly . Your connection to

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VCU . I graduated from VCU in 2000 and

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one from the medical school and then

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stayed on to do the residency program

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there an emergency medicine from 2001

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to 2000 and four . So in a sense that

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they trained me for this , what I'm

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doing now , What is it that you're

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doing now ? I'm an emergency medicine

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physician in the 10th Cash taking care

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of combat casualties and anybody else

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who stick in the area . Where exactly

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are you Alright ? We're part of what

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we're part . We're in Baghdad in

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something called the international zone ,

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which is also known as the green zone ,

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which is sort of the walled off safe

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area for want of a better word in the

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center of the city . What's the name of

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the facility that you're working out of ?

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There's a hospital that was sort of

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their jewel in the ground hospital .

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One of them , I was actually Saddam

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Hussein's hospital called Ibn Sina

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named after I think 1/12 century poet

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and philosopher and scientist . And

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when were you deployed ? Um Yes ,

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I was deployed with the 10th cash in

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november for this year . Okay thank you .

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We got all of that out the way . So by

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telling me you are one of the doctors

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who worked on Cbs reporter kim Dozier ,

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what was your involvement ? Um

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The way it works is that there are four

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E . R . Doctors actually now five who

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rotate on different shifts and I

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happened to be called down to help out

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because we had quite a few casualties

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that day . So in a sense we're never

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off and I came and I was the primary

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doctor at the head of the table for her

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and her resuscitation . Um there were

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many hands around the table and many

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good medics and nurses and other

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doctors helping out occasionally .

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What's the condition like when she

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first came in there ? I've described it

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before , She was very near death . We

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see this a lot in Iraq . The injuries

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were so traumatic , they've lost so

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much blood that go there , young and

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healthy and compensating . Um they're

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very , very near expiring from just

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what we call hemorrhagic shock or loss

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of blood , did you have an

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opportunity to converse with her ? And

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if so what was that like what was the

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wording exchange when she first came in ?

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She said I asked her her name and she

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was saying please help me please help

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me . And I said ask her her name and

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she said her name was kim , I didn't

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know who she was . Um And then I she

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even told me whether she had any

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allergies to medicines . So she was at

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some level very much aware of what was

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going on . But she's also in that place

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that I described as sort of the edge

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where you're going back and forth

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between life and death . And she's just

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on that edge struggling very very

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powerful will to live , struggling to

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stay alive and asking for help

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basically . And then I I put her to

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sleep so she wouldn't feel any more

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pain and I could protect her airway and

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we could work on her . What were her

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injury ? She had very

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she had protection to her core which a

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lot of our soldiers who have with what

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we call . I've asked her protective

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place because she had very very severe

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injuries to her lower extremities and

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also head injury at the time I

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suspected it but I couldn't prove it

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because we didn't know a lot of , we

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found out sort of as we went along .

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Now she's just one of thousands I

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suspect that you see regularly talk to

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me about what is a typical day if you

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can use the word typical but what is a

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typical day they're like for you will

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you bring up a good point . It's

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typical , it's hard to describe just

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because it's hit or miss . Some days

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are very quiet and then some days were

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overwhelmed with many different

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casualties but a typical day would be

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on a say 8 to 10 hours over the course

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of an er shift . You may get someone

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come in with chest pain from the States

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who really shouldn't even be here . She

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might even ask , you know , one of the

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contractors who's got bad heart disease

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and then it has a very maybe having a

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heart attack . And then the next thing

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you know we have three casualties from

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an IED soldiers who've been their

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humvee maybe run over and triggered an

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I . D . Their suffering injuries that

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some which could be life threatening so

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much could be minor . Then we might end

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up getting some of the local

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contractors who got injured from the

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same thing . Either an I . D . Or drive

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by or something like that or an attack .

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And then occasionally have accidents .

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People shoot themselves very rarely for

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us soldiers . But often the case for

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some of the contractor protective folks

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who are here . And then we might get

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some just general accidents from the

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contractors . The Iraqi contractors who

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work , there's a lot of bad electrical

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uh services here and so they're exposed .

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They might get electrocuted and then

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we'll have some more injuries come in .

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It's just it's sort of hit or miss .

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But we often get rather than just one

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or two will get five at the same time .

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It sounds like a busy environment . It

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can be what's different about our

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environment as opposed to say VCU which

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was great training for this was that

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there's not a lot of what I call the

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background , there's not a lot of sort

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of chronic back pain , abdominal pain

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that comes in . There's some , but a

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lot of the things that sort of fill up

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in er the things that you've just seen

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in the recent Institute of Medicine

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that make it very difficult for us to

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get through our day in the emergency

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department , we don't have that . So in

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a sense , it's kind of pure trauma ,

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pure emergency medicine . And so from a ,

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from a practice standpoint is probably

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one of the best places for me to

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practice . It's just very , very

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difficult being away from our family .

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What is the technology like in the

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equipment in comparison to stay here at

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VCU or another large medical facility

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and what equipment in comparison to

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what you guys are working with their

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help , the folks out , it's actually

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very similar at the emergency room

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level . So if you , even though the

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plan and layout looks a little strange ,

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it's all sort of in marble and it's

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sort of slapped together . A lot of the

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equipment that we use almost all of it ,

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in fact , is exactly what you would

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find at VCU , where we differ is in the

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back end . So our surgeons have to

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operate in our suites that aren't

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nearly as clean as sterile as they are .

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VCU . We don't have a neurosurgery here

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at our hospital . We don't have a lot

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of the what we call ancillary staff .

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We have excellent radiology that can

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come down and playing films . We also

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have CT scanners . We actually have to

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do so in a lot of ways it's very

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similar to VCU . We just don't have

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nearly as much depth and we don't have

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the ICU support . We have excellent ICU .

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We just don't have a neuro ICU in a

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hard I see you in a medical respiratory

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we just have one is there ? I'm just

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gonna because I think we're at the 11

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minute marker . But is there any one

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incident that stands out in your head

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since you got there in 2005 someone

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that has come through what stands out

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the most of the day . The holidays have

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been difficult for one reason or

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another . Every holiday we've had some

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very difficult losses and people who

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have died in our E . R . But the most

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devastating day I think was when we had

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seven marines young marines who

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suffered an I . E . D . Last and there

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were only six legs among the seven

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marines and they were awake and talking

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to us . How do you personally deal with

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seeing this trauma on a regular basis

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being stationed there ? Well it's

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interesting I think partly by training

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at VCU . That was actually very helpful

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because we have a fair amount of trauma

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there but most importantly we talk to

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each other . I get on the phone and my

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wife has my child son Ryan who's five

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years old call every day and talk to me

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for about 20 minutes mostly about Star

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Wars . But he just wants to talk and

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that really helps . When are you coming

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home ? I don't know exactly what I'm

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coming home . They're usually one year

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tours and I have to come back and take

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what's called the oral boards . That's

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the second part of the emergency

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medicine boards . So I have to sneak

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back maybe a little bit early if I can .

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Well see do you have a message for the

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wife and little one ? Absolutely . Just

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build a Ryan Emma , I love you very

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much . I hope you get a chance to see .

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This is your phone number that we can

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get a hold of them at ? Yeah the phone

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number is

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4155538636 .

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So as you can tell they're in

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California right now . Okay . Are you

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originally from California ? She is and

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we have moved her family back there to

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be near her mom and her dad and all our

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support group while I'm gone . Which

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was a very good idea . Where are you

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from ? I was actually born in boston

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and I grew up in D . C . Mainly east

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coast kids . Okay . Is there anything

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else that you would like to add about

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life ? Anything you want people here in

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the states to know . I mean you guys ,

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it seems like you're working hard and

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you're working long hours . We are . My

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my personal safety is never really much

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of an issue here in the green zone . I

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feel fairly safe . But what we're

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seeing here is very devastating . I

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guess the most important thing I need

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for people to understand at home is

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that whatever your political feelings

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are about why we got into this or

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whether it was a good idea or not , we

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are here now and we're very much needed .

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So I guess the question we have to ask

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ourselves is where do we go from here ?

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And what's best for both us and this

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country to heal ? Okay .

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All right . I think I think that was a

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great job . I think we're good . Okay .

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Thank you so very much . I appreciate

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it . And thank you anytime you're

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welcome . Take care , ma'am . Okay , my

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quad . Thank you . Bye bye

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bye bye .