Medical advances in frontline medicine
November 24, 2011
Posted by:Zoe Lomax
Last week a BBC documentary explored the innovative ways in which military casualties are being dealt with. Doctors reported that the biggest cause of death on the battlefield is loss of blood. This can be from a variety of causes, including shot wounds and loss of limbs. Emergency medics must have a constant supply of donor blood ready as soon as an injured person is brought in. Doctors have discovered that by changing the traditional ratio of transfused blood and plasma (from four parts blood to one part plasma) to equal amounts of both, the blood will clot more easily. This means more lives are being saved and is clearly an excellent development. However, there is still concern for the ongoing health of these injured men and women. As military compensation specialists we see claims from people whose lives have been saved but who are now suffering from poor mental health as a result of the trauma they have experienced. We hope to see developments being made in this important area of medicine, following on from the successes on the frontline.