U.S. Hospital In Germany Gets Wounded
Ten U.S. soldiers with battlefield wounds and 12 with noncombat injuries arrived in Germany on Saturday for treatment at a military hospital.
The 22 soldiers were flown to Ramstein Air Base in western Germany on board a C-141 transport plane, and were taken by bus to the nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
The base at Ramstein is the biggest hub for U.S. troops and military supplies in Europe. U.S. soldiers injured in military conflicts are often taken to the nearby military hospital in Landstuhl for first treatment. It's the largest U.S. military hospital outside of the United States and capacity is routinely increased during conflicts.
The 10 with combat wounds included two Army soldiers and eight Marines. The two Army soldiers were put in intensive care, said Capt. Norris Jones, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command. He declined to give further details of their injuries.
The military did not release the soldiers' identities.
Medivac planes shuttle between Ramstein Air Base and Kuwait at least several times a week, and sometimes twice a day, reports CBS News Correspondent Stephan Kaufman.
One C-141 was greeted by about half a dozen ambulances. A ramp at the rear of the plane was lowered, and first medical personnel came out, with equipment and supplies, followed about two dozen patients.
Eighty-one soldiers from the Iraq war are being treated at Landstuhl. Of them, 33 have battle wounds.
"We're only keeping them here for a pretty short time," said Lt. Col. Susan Raymond, a nurse at Landstuhl's Intensive Care Unit. "If it looks like they have a condition that they will be over in time to head back to the front, we'll let them do that. Otherwise, if they don't look like they're going to be over it pretty quickly, they're usually sent back to their home station."
Raymond noted treatment is not just for physical injuries, but also for mental health.
"We have chaplains, social workers, psychiatrists that treat not only the patients but the staff members, as well, making sure we take care of their physical and their mental health," she said on the CBS News Early Show. "When they first wake up from anesthesia, many of them want to know, 'Can I talk to my loved one in the States?' And the second thing they want to know is, 'How are the guys doing in my unit?' They're very, very concerned with their buddies back in the war zone."