March 26th: The Day That Changed Us All

March 26, 2010 — a date burned into the memory of Todd Nicely and the surgeons who fought to keep him alive. In this powerful and emotional episode, Todd reunites with the very medical team that worked tirelessly to save him after he was critically injured in Afghanistan.

From the helicopter landing zone to the makeshift surgical tent at Camp Dwyer, you’ll hear firsthand accounts from the general surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses who responded in a matter of minutes to a devastating injury. They reflect on trauma, teamwork, and the moment they realized “this is one we can save.”

⚠️ Bring tissues — this one hits hard.

Featuring:

• Paul Roach (General Surgeon)
• Alex Evans (General Surgeon)
• Amy Zetchuk (Shock Trauma Nurse)
• Steven Blackwell (Anesthesiologist)
• Craig Randall (Orthopedic Surgeon)

🩸 Learn about the Walking Blood Bank.
 💉 Hear what 47 units of blood really means.
 ❤️ And discover the unlikely moments of humor that can still shine through the darkest of days.

Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/whendoesthefkryend/
Twitter:    https://twitter.com/WDFKRYE
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLK1ho6AACjaEoQGWO2f_uQ

Transcript

all

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[Music]

0:13

right everybody welcome to another podcast of When Does the [ __ ] End i believe this is episode 23 and today is

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going to be a special one but I'm going to do what I always do first and go over the organizations that I believe are worth looking out and checking out and

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one of them is a good sponsor of today's which is simply fund and then you can

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find them at simpy and America fund and then we have tunnels towers organization we also have

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war fighters engaged Joshua Chamberlain society and focus marines foundation

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correct yes okay well with that being said we're going to move on to what this

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episode is actually about and today I'm here with some of the surgeons that were there on the day that they March 26 2010

0:59

that we talk about sometimes uh the day that changed my life forever and I'm sure it probably changed these guys'

1:04

life forever as well and I had the opportunity today to meet up with them and speak with them and tell them

1:10

everything's going great in my life which sometimes it's not is it Kyle

1:15

it's always going great oh you're going to get fired now but anyway I would like to have them tell

1:22

their stories and you guys kind of enjoy or get the tissue box whichever might happen um so we'll go ahead and just

1:29

kind of start there with that um does anyone want to start and let us know what they were doing that day or what

1:35

kind of procedure they had to do with me or on me or you know I said on me so and

1:41

obviously introduce yourself yes please all right um I'll start i'm the chatty

1:49

one here it's like the Spice Girls but uh Well at least someone's got someone's got to go first yeah I'd be chatty Spice

1:55

someone's got to go first uh my name is Paul Roach i'm a general surgeon and we were part of

2:01

uh uh Alpha Surgical Company First Medical Battalion and we're out in

2:08

southern Halman Province in 200910 in Camp Dwire and uh it was a

2:14

series of tents uh in this really barren landscape and the tents were kind of

2:21

removed by 10 or 15 minutes from the action so that we wouldn't be right in the front uh and and we just lived there

2:29

and that's all we did and we waited for business to come in what we'd call business so I was business Paul yeah

2:36

yeah we call that business as a euphemism and uh uh and then when it did

2:43

we would spring into action and so I can't remember exactly the day but

2:48

pretty much every day was extraordinarily hot and sunny

2:55

it was always sunny in Philadelphia yeah and uh I don't know if you guys

3:00

remember any of the details of the afternoon when when this happened well I just wanted to

3:06

It's on oh I just wanted to say that I do remember you springing bouncing up and down all over the place that that's

3:13

that's funny but as um my name is Alex Evans i am one of the surgeons that was

3:19

there working alongside Paul uh he was my uh cut cut buddy we call him surgeon

3:27

buddy yeah so we we worked in teams um and so we worked as a team so that one

3:34

side would rest if it got too busy etc um but it was just as he said he

3:41

described uh the environment uh as far as when you came in um we were all there

3:48

um at least our team and then because of the significance of the injury and

3:55

because we expected others to come in we called the other team in so it was it was basically four surgeons four general

4:02

surgeons one plastic surgeon and two orthopedic surgeons all at one time so a

4:08

lot of surgeons and then you had anesthesiologist i think two of you were there um uh so a lot of physician

4:17

subject kind of sounds like the beginning of the joke like how many surgeons does it take to put time back together and there it is

4:26

but Amy you were saying Amy you were saying that when it when the radio first

4:31

call came in hi how you doing i am Amy Zetchuk i'm a I worked in the Shock

4:37

platoon area of the um STP Fris out in Afghanistan um excuse me i remember that

4:45

day as I heard the birds taking off and it was in the afternoon early afternoon

4:50

lunchish time I think i don't know the time i don't know the exact time but it we never would really at that point

4:56

after being there for about four months 5 months it was unusual to hear the the chopper spinning so fast um and getting

5:04

out of there and um I walked in and I I think I remembered it was uh Captain Dan Nolamper who was our uh company

5:11

commander at the time and said "Oh we have a single ampute coming in." Um and

5:16

then it was spinning the OS up and that's when the surgeons and you guys got to work and did what you had to do

5:21

to warm up the tents um and get into place knowing that somebody's coming through um normal routine everybody

5:29

would go out you know wait for the the helicopter to land and then I I'd heard oh it's a double okay so coming in with

5:36

double that's all we got um and then I I remember hearing it's a triple triple ampute coming in uh and then I we could

5:43

hear the birds coming out and I went outside and there was sand kicking up and I've never seen I never saw the helicopters after our time there we got

5:50

there kind of boots on the ground early November this is March 26 26 2010 2010

5:56

um I had never seen the uh the birds coming in so hot and everybody was saying "Hey they're coming in hot." And

6:03

they came in and they smashed down um so close i I don't think they follow the protocol probably not and I saw the the

6:11

dust off guy scream and put four fingers up and said "Four it's a quad it's a quad." Um and that's kind of and it

6:18

gives me chills just to say that and well I was sitting here getting chills myself and I was going to mention something but I was like I'll just let

6:24

her finish her story but I'm over here getting chills listening to the story because I'm I'm the one inside the bird

6:29

yeah um but uh when we you came in I was in the I moved into the STP because we

6:36

didn't know what what we had um I think that everybody was moving so fast um and

6:42

you probably can talk about what was going on in the in the aircraft um uh that you remember i actually had blacked

6:48

out once I got to the aircraft we talked about this earlier where I I felt like I was going to be safe once I had reached

6:54

the helicopter something in my body told me "You're going to be fine." And that's when I kind of blacked out but

6:59

apparently I was still conscious when I arrived um and I Yes uh you came through and I remember standing in the STP and

7:05

you were screaming um and I think we can all remember that uh and there was Well

7:11

sorry to put that image in your head folks so you didn't make it to the shock trial platoon we didn't really We had to go

7:17

take you right back to the operating room there was nothing that we could do there uh and that's when the surgeons took over um and and started going to

7:24

work on you and I think Paul probably and uh can jump in and Steve and the

7:29

surgeons because that's when they took over i'll just say your screaming was a a

7:34

good thing for us okay you do that i mean I know it's not a good thing and you don't maybe remember that but it

7:42

told us that you were you know you had still had some fighter life and that's right

7:48

mental function that was meant you were having enough blood to to do that and

7:53

actually to piggyback on that that's what made it so um like positive but it

8:00

it made us feel like in this type of person with this type of injury we

8:05

actually can save him and so that's why you you were joking how many doctors

8:11

everybody jumped in because we said "Oh this is one we can save guys this is one

8:16

we can save." I think I asked you guys all that question earlier too was did you know if I could be saved or did you

8:21

think that there was any possibility when you were screaming we believed it the other thing

8:27

that's that's important is is we were not in a hospital we're just in a tent

8:33

uh dimly lit poor lighting poor suction very few units of blood not temperature

8:42

controlled and so when a person came in we had to

8:47

swarm in order to accomplish everything that needed to be done to sort

8:54

of control the situation as fast as we could so it couldn't be one pair of

9:02

surgeons working on this arm and then that leg and so it was everybody at once so it was our two orthopedic surgeons

9:07

were working right away alex and I were working right away we had a plastic surgeon working right away and then

9:13

there was a lot of work happening up at the the head of the bed getting you blood how many units

9:20

we have a picture i don't Steve I think we have a picture somewhere i think that Steve mentioned it but I don't know the total yeah I think Craig might have sent

9:26

me some pictures too and we'll put that up on the website so you people will know exactly what they're talking about and what this scenario looked like

9:34

i'm pulling it up now that was 47 yeah i'm not sure exactly how many it was but

9:40

talk about blood though i mean the walking blood bank itself was amazing and you guys are nurses uh yeah so

9:50

that's uh that's uh Steve's forte steve you want to introduce yourself and

9:55

elaborate what the walking blood bank is so I'm Steven Blackwell and an

10:01

anesthesiologist and and uh unfortunately uh there were two other anesthesiologists there with me that

10:07

were um vital um Rupa Dainer who's not here at the conference or the weekend

10:13

but also Mike Karns and um so they're a lot of they get much credit but in that

10:22

um environment we had limited blood available and we knew that um we were

10:28

going to have traumatic injuries that had to be resuscitated and so you can't

10:33

just keep blood forever and you have a supply that can expire so there's always

10:38

a battle to keep enough of it there to um treat and to resuscitate so um the uh

10:48

Navy and military in general in its infinite wisdom had had already put

10:53

together we're we're working on the shoulders of people who'd been before us and done this before but had a protocol

11:00

for a walking blood bank where um early on we um screened uh DoD personnel at

11:08

the camp at Camp Dwire that were uh anyone who carried a a um CAT card so

11:15

active duty or civilian contractor anybody that we could keep tabs on would

11:21

um would qualify and we uh pre-screen them so that we could uh know blood type

11:27

and uh and uh any you know other tests that you do uh to make sure that you're

11:34

giving the right kind of you know type specific and and screened blood also that's clean and um screen for different

11:41

viruses so anyway we had that available and when the word came in that we would have uh uh traumatic injuries that

11:49

needed blood we got the word out by carrier pigeon by

11:56

carrier pigeon by by email by whatever means we had to the camp because the I

12:02

can't remember how big the camp was square you know acreage well apparently

12:07

I have a little bit of Amy in me yeah I think you do there there is

12:13

jealous you know I'm I'm I'm I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember what your blood type was a positive so uh

12:20

anyway it was very unique but we sprang into action and we had enough blood to at least get started

12:27

when I say we had enough blood we had enough banked blood because that was readily available and we had that right

12:34

there uh and we could start it but it wasn't enough um for ongoing needs so we

12:39

the blood that's where the walking blood bank came into um uh where it earned its

12:44

money was to continue to provide and um one thing that strikes me about that day

12:50

I was going out and getting it was warming up it was pretty hot by then and I was getting vitamin D therapy out on

12:56

top of one of the ConX boxes laying out in the sun that's right naked was he in

13:02

a bikini naked you prefer to be naked

13:07

but um anyway so it was really hot and so believe it or not even inside the tents very hot but we had to warm it up

13:14

even more to keep the temperature for you uh close to um body temperature 98

13:20

degrees that's pretty hot because you're you have no way to control or regulate your temperature at this point and there

13:27

you know we talk about a triad of death getting cold even just a few degrees

13:32

below 98 is is bad uh because you don't clot like you should so it was just

13:39

sweltering that's why everybody you see these pictures of us in t-shirts and shorts and whatnot because it's just so

13:46

hot but anyway the good thing about whole blood is you're taking it immediately from the person whose

13:52

temperature is 98 degrees and and you're giving it so it's it's not chilled like

13:58

banked blood is and that's one of the beautiful effects of it and it's got all the components and they all work if you

14:04

bank blood it loses some of its function and activity uh just by the pure fact of

14:10

being processed and banked uh so in this case whole blood is perfect blood you

14:15

can give it immediately and it's warm and it's got all the factors that are necessary and anyway that that that's

14:21

that's what we gave you these are some very interesting facts about blood that I I wasn't even Did you go no I had no

14:28

idea about blood like this me neither you're lucky you answered that one or you might get fired one thing was is

14:34

that um it was lunchtime and we weren't we had to get the walking blood bank going so fast that we didn't have the

14:40

rest of the base showing up right then and there so a lot of there was a there's a line and I'll I'll send you the picture of um a bunch of us medical

14:47

folks who are all a positive that lined up um got our blood i got mine out i

14:52

think I was the first one to go in and then they you give it to the blood bank they spin it cook it do whatever magic they can to it um then they gave it back

14:59

to me and I went in there and just pushed it right in um and then that continued wow it's amazing how many

15:06

people all came together to save one life uh that's a great point i mean it

15:12

if you think about it it begins with your your company mate who put on the

15:17

the tourniquets and then your corman comes in and then someone radios the helicopter team helicopter team shows up

15:25

with the pilots and the and the uh medics in the back and and you got to

15:31

also then include you know the mechanics who make sure that the damn helicopter will fly and the air traffic controllers

15:39

who route all the messages then you bring it into our company and then it just carries on from there over and over

15:45

uh one thing I wanted to make about the one point I wanted to make about the blood is in any one of us we have about

15:51

15 pints of blood in our body and uh if you lose half of that that's pretty much

15:58

a critical threshold wouldn't you say so if you lose seven and a half pints of blood uh that might be beyond the point

16:07

where you're going to survive and so you were right at that threshold and then

16:12

all told by the time we were done in just maybe an hour hour and a half of operating on you you had

16:20

received in various forms 45 or so units of of blood and blood products so you

16:28

got kind of a a cleanout it sounds like I had like three people in me could have

16:35

been a few few more craig do you have any anything wild to talk about on how you showed up to the to the to the O

16:42

sure yeah it is i guess good segue good segue um I'm Craig Randall at the time I

16:49

was Lieutenant Commander and just retired as Captain Randall but uh

16:54

I know oh the one pulling his rank out now exactly oh now they're giving them so much trouble yeah and Yeah none of

17:01

these notice how none of these uh fine gentlemen and ladies introduce them their military titles but anyway

17:09

um I was having a very good day uh I was excited because it w it was my off day

17:15

mary uh Cunningham bathing no I was not sunbathing i Mary Cunningham was the

17:21

orthopod on call and it was my off day and Dwire had they just opened up two

17:28

things they opened up the exchange and a barber shop so I was excited i was going to get a little lunch and go get a nice

17:34

little haircut for the first time and then I had to go step on a bomb exactly and but as I was walking I heard the

17:41

birds take off and I was like "Oh some business going to happen we'll see how that goes." And I was in the barber shop

17:49

and all of a sudden uh uh Amy uh bursts through the door and and she says "We

17:56

got a bad And I said "Okay." She goes "We need you we need you now." And I got up and she

18:05

goes "You drive the gator." And so you know we had the little John Deere gators and of course being a Marine Corps base

18:12

you know if you go above 5 miles per hour you you know five different people yell at you and uh Camp Comedon comes

18:20

out and give you a speeding ticket yeah something like that the mayor it's funny because it's true yeah did you have your yellow um uh reflector on didn't have

18:28

any she just goes "No glow." He had his He had his cape on no glow belt but he had his haircut cape on but I but I told

18:35

her I said I go "Let me take the wheel i'll use my massive '04 rank." And I

18:40

said "If we get a speeding ticket we speed." And we just flew in and and zipped in right to the front door and so

18:47

I missed a you know all of the intro and by the time I got there I I just took my

18:53

blouse off i I still had my my boots and my uh you know t-shirt and and pants

19:01

and you know they were knee deep in it um by this time Mary you know credit to

19:07

her she they had completed and had dressed your left leg and they were

19:14

finishing up the right leg and by the time I jumped in the focus was on your

19:21

right arm and we mentioned that too with my right arm how we talked about earlier

19:26

about the elbow joint and how significant that is to have yes and it

19:32

wouldn't I wouldn't have that if you guys wouldn't have saved it and I I will stop here and it is maybe fortuitous

19:38

that that Ed Lions is is quietly in the background because he was one of the

19:45

first and and what I did with him was I let his he lost his hand and

19:53

and I you know they talk about you know take the amputation to good tissue and

19:59

and what I elected to do was to leave him as much length as possible And I I

20:05

dress I you know took care of the amputation cleaned it up a little bit and then kind of stretched the skin and

20:10

that's that's a a testament to uh Commander uh Mazerich who was an orthopedic surgeon he was an orthopedic

20:16

traumatologist and we had chatted before my deployment he always talked about

20:22

leaving as much for the guys down the road so they can they can use that

20:27

um and it was funny another orthodont we we got in a huge argument cuz he accused

20:34

me of closing a traumatic wound which I did but it you know professional courtesy but um so I jump in to your

20:43

right arm and the the injury was through the joint i mean your your distal

20:48

humorous was exposed and Bob Hirs was was there and I think he left to go do

20:56

help with the blood bank I think at that time so I completed I completed your amputation through your right arm and it

21:02

definitely was interarticular um and then it was time to address your your left arm and

21:09

certainly um the the concern was the blast injury

21:16

had extended up until your elbow and so we did have a conversation of do we can you know do we amputate through the the

21:23

elbow joint on the left um do we you know decide to leave it on and I was I

21:30

was clear that we're going to leave you with much length well then I I am very happy that you left me with that much

21:36

more length because now I can somewhat scratch my neck when I need to fair enough but it was it was hairy and and

21:42

and and as we we discussed um your vessels were injured and this is

21:49

where uh Alex and uh Paul kind of jump in and do a lot of vascular work but I

21:54

can tell you for your forearm again as we talked I took out one of your lesser toes that was in your forearm i took out

22:03

uh part of your the sole of your of your boot and and you saw some of the eyelets i mean we had the one picture of eyelet

22:11

i think there was a couple i think maybe I think you guys took one out or something but but certainly the ex

22:17

definitely represented the extent of the injury you know into the forearm but we that's what we elected to do

22:23

um dressed up the arm and then you see some of the kind of the the the the post

22:30

uh pictures but I I will I will say this and this is kind of a segue and I'm glad

22:35

you've mentioned some of this and this is another reason why I asked you i

22:40

turned to Paul paul Paul and I weren't the last we were the last bob came in and did some did some

22:47

work on your face and um and plus he you know as a plastic surgeon he tried to

22:52

put breast augmentation to make it really Well I did i did get a larger cup

22:57

size might as well as but but this is you know it cuz I don't

23:04

remember all the particular but I do remember this point and I and I do remember and I don't think Paul remembered it but I I asked Paul and I

23:11

don't know if it was in my head but I my question was what are we

23:17

doing and you know because we're at a point where you know we can keep people indefinitely alive but are they alive

23:25

and and and and that was running through my head with you and and I I say that

23:32

because that has been on my mind well and for the past for the past

23:39

you know 13 years if I may um like I was saying when I first met you guys is

23:45

don't ever think that my quality of life is has ever held me back from anything

23:50

the fact that I still have my life is the reason of you guys and that I get to

23:55

enjoy having my three-year-old son and Mary's Mary's come in and Mary's aware of the LEAP study and and you know they

24:02

talk about you know this was a study done in the 90s where they talked about amputations and just the hardships and

24:09

that was that ran through my mind now I I can't remember if I asked Paul this or I wanted to ask Paul this you you did

24:14

ask and and but I did and and I just and I I thought it was kind of good that you

24:22

had two guiltridden Irish Catholics you know and and and Alec and and and Alex

24:28

was there and we'll adopt him as an Irish Catholic too but um working on

24:33

your arm saying "Well let's give you a chance." You know but that that question has always haunted me and I will tell

24:41

you I've been keeping tabs on you from afar and that's been a question

24:48

that sounds a little creepy stop it this is not I mean that's

24:53

understandable and this is no because this is this has been

25:00

this has been you know my ghost on this is that question and and that and I I've

25:09

been I've been scared to ask that question i've been there were a couple times where I wanted to drive to

25:14

Missouri that's why I you know and you know and the people I I wanted

25:21

to talk to would be your mom your dad and you know and it's not but I was

25:28

scared to ask that question because I I don't the question is you know it it's

25:35

not it's not a question I'm proud I asked and no and I want you to

25:40

understand that hopefully meeting today has put some of that to rest because I

25:47

myself like I said am very excited and happy to be alive now that I have my three-year-old son and I mentor people

25:53

now was I always in a great place no I wasn't but I am now today life is hard

26:00

but I have to look back and go at least I still have my life because you know we

26:05

earlier today we all talked about what we did and that kind of stuff where we moved on but always I was like you were

26:11

there that march you know and that's that that always you know I was fearful

26:18

of that and and and I and you know that's just my that's my ghost that's my

26:26

demon well hopefully we can put that ghost to rescue hopefully yeah you have and and and and even Ed you know that

26:35

and there are others out there there are others out there that I do have questions about and it's not to take away anyone else's experience but that's

26:41

that's my that's my demon I guess is did we and

26:48

I'm glad and I can put that demon to rest so well and that just goes to prove

26:53

that not only of us military guys that were on the front lines that it happens to the guys in the back lines too

26:59

because we don't because here's the thing you you know and and the reason the reason the elbow is I remember that

27:05

Marine not even a name how inhuman is that that that Marine I remember from

27:13

you know the arm and that and that's that's how a lot of you guys come through and in some ways that's

27:21

good and we we disassociate the humanity of it but at the same time that's not

27:27

what that's not why I got into medicine certainly but you do wonder and and you

27:33

do know that you guys leave the you know one minute you're on the field in a in a

27:38

dirty wahi or whatever and the next thing you know you're back in Maryland

27:44

so you know thank you for helping me at least get rid of that uh you know I I

27:50

don't I don't say that as saying my life's you know certainly folks have got bigger demons but that's just been one

27:58

persistent question in fact my son just texted me you know said "Oh," he goes "You're you're meeting the quad." And

28:04

that's how I've that's how you are in my memory you're the quad well I mean I was

28:09

anymore now now it's Todd but yeah but it's and it's good right and that's you

28:15

know and so uh you know Mary had some excellent points and and hopefully she'll but she again she was Yeah she's

28:21

jumped in yeah hi I'm Mary we've been talking about you Mary sorry oh really

28:27

most checking on my daughter uh but um

28:32

you know I I know this may sound funny i don't want to make this something talking

28:38

about like my experiences but I will tell you that I it brings back so much

28:45

stuff and I just remember being at Bastion with this whole

28:51

room filled with blown up bodies and blood

28:57

everywhere you know that visual image something like that never really leaves your your mind no

29:05

and um you know in your particular instance and I know we kind of talked

29:10

about this before but like I said I knew that you were going to you know it was

29:15

interesting to say when you said I I knew you knew when you got on the dust

29:22

off that you were going to live mhm and you knew it inside and it's interesting

29:27

because Ed talking about the angels and everything i think I'm a um religious person and it's funny because I became

29:33

an Irish Catholic now after uh the military but um when you came in with so

29:41

much life inside of you I mean when someone has that life force

29:46

uh they're they're going to make it and you know just like Craig was saying I

29:53

was follow I told you like I when I saw that um newspaper on the Washington Post

30:00

and the news stand with you on it and your wife at the time I was like "Thank

30:05

God you look so good." You know we're obviously all a lot younger then yeah

30:10

kyle's giving you the he looks all right well what are you judging me for Kyle perspective okay perspective and then

30:18

following I you know I did the same thing as I mean I I felt a sense of relief okay like thank God we did did

30:25

did that and I will say that you know I had those same thoughts

30:31

too like are we doing the right thing to save young men in these situations and

30:36

then when we came back to Walter Reed and again it's just blown up bodies

30:43

everywhere lost their penis lost their testicles lost half their body and

30:48

you're looking at a stump of a person and they're 20

30:54

years old marines soldiers in the absolute prime

31:00

of their life and their physical being and self is such a huge

31:06

part of their identity and thinking how is this person

31:11

going to go on from this and I will tell you that like uh

31:18

especially being Catholic and being religious it's like all life is so precious and it is so precious just

31:26

imagine How many mothers you made happy how many brothers and sisters were made

31:31

happy especially mine that day you made five just with this one right here yeah

31:37

absolutely i mean I have no doubts about it now but back then when you see

31:42

that the gore in these young men it's you know

31:48

it's very it's it's tough to swallow i mean even myself being at the hospital

31:54

it was hard to watch new guys come in and flow through while you're trying to do your therapy and work it it's it's

32:00

tough to watch it's tough to see and I don't think people realize that listen to the podcast or anywhere that you know

32:08

the type of things that we go through as well and as you guys as medical professionals you have to see it day in

32:14

and day out so that's got to be tough and I just I hope that with me and Ed being here today Ed's not really talking

32:20

back there but I hope that we could put some ease to your mind to say you guys are doing a great service for this

32:26

country and bringing men like us back home well and and I I truly believe

32:32

everything happens for a reason every single thing even the bad things that happen in life and I I say that to my

32:40

daughter all the time because um that that's the way life is but your life has a purpose and you guys are clearly

32:48

showing and expressing that just just starting individually with your families

32:54

and being a light to people that have been in these similar situations and

33:00

even just talking about the mental health stuff to especially to young men that's a hard thing you know to talk

33:08

about and to face and the fact that you guys faced things like that made it

33:15

that's a miracle too that's incredible just to turn that to focus on the that

33:23

things you know happen for a reason and and you live for a purpose i always think about that a lot and it's hard for

33:29

me to understand sometimes but then if I flip it over it makes more sense and getting

33:37

to know you guys last night and today has been so profound in that you

33:43

wake up and you you give yourself that purpose you say "I'm taking this purpose i'm going to live today i could choose

33:50

to just fold my my uh cards and and just

33:56

give up but no I'm going to I'm going to do this." And and I think meeting both

34:01

of you has been very inspirational for for all of us in that you have chosen

34:09

you both articulated that I I want this I want this day to happen i want

34:15

tomorrow to happen i want to be a dad every day and and where I'm coming from is a sense of

34:23

uh a like new appreciation for for this Marine spirit and both both of you and

34:30

all the others who you're like that it's not over yet i'm still I'm still here

34:35

i'm still fighting and I'm bringing it and I uh I I just it's been really fantastic to meet you both

34:43

and and to get to know you like like we have today

34:48

when um Craig here was talking about the demons

34:54

um I think as medical professions even though outside all of us doesn't matter

35:01

if we're nursing etc we always have those questions that come up in our

35:07

minds and unfortunately we've been in order to continue to treat the next

35:13

person we do like like what he did put it as a number as a as a and you disass

35:21

disassociate just to allow you to go to the next person the next one the next one but every once in a while something

35:30

like this happens where you can take off that that Superman attit attitude and

35:38

then and you you bring down the mask and you become vulnerable and then you know

35:45

I like when I saw you when I saw you it's like a flood of memories came in

35:53

and I remember how like I was in it we were doing it but in my mind I was like

36:00

no we got to get we got to save him you know like and everyone was that's I

36:07

mentioned it earlier like everyone just gelled just moved in in sync they knew

36:13

what to do it was like it was it was beautiful to see if that can if there

36:18

can be beauty beauty in this it was beautiful to see the coordination of

36:24

care and the camaraderie of everyone there focused on one thing and that was

36:29

saving you saving you um and now that I

36:34

can bring that that shield down I can heal

36:40

from all the angst that we all have and that had to have been taxing for 13

36:46

years to carry that with you i mean that it's been 13 years since this injury

36:51

happened to me and for 13 years you've been carrying that around so to hear that that helps me as well knowing that

36:58

you guys seeing me and how well I'm doing that it it brings this in and everybody they keep saying you well

37:05

we're going to bring in Ed ed is was in the same battalion as I was he was with Golf Company correct

37:12

that that's correct Todd i was with uh 22 Golf Company um on that same deployment my name's Ed Lions um and I

37:21

was one of if not the first or second casualty that this team um had go

37:29

through their field hospital in Camp Dwire and it's it's interesting both

37:34

Todd and I have talked about our recoveries and mentioned how you know

37:40

grateful we are for our lives and that is that is due to all of you in the

37:46

efforts that you have made um and and yes there were those dark times and hard

37:52

periods um that we had gone through and one of the things that uh has just been really

37:57

eye opening for me here and some of you have talked about it and Todd has mentioned a lot on this

38:05

is for 13 14 years now I've looked back on that day as this is what happened to

38:11

me you know um very early on into my deployment and now being here getting to

38:17

meet all of you and speak with you um I'm realizing that it may have been traumatizing izing

38:25

for me on that day November 25th 2009 but it was also very early on into all

38:31

of yours deployments too and so it wasn't just me who was affected by this

38:37

um and so getting to be here and meet all of you and hear the efforts that you

38:43

all had made is just it's really made me even that much more

38:48

appreciative of the life that I do have and that I get to have

38:54

um that might have very well ended at 20 years old if it weren't for all of you

38:59

you know now I do get to have that family and raise children and lead a

39:06

life that honors um not just the sacrifice of the men that we served with

39:13

um and those who didn't come home but it honors the sacrifice and efforts of all of those who made sure that Todd and I

39:21

got to come home and that couldn't be well more spoken than by Ed there i'm

39:26

telling you right now if it wasn't for you guys we would not have the life that we're having right now we could be

39:33

another gold star family and that's one too many gold star families in my

39:38

opinion yeah um I just wanted to say I'm uh Commander Alvarado i'm still active duty

39:44

27 years um I was a critical care nurse with about a year and a half experience

39:50

never had trauma experience um so I went out with this team and you know we got a

39:56

bunch of great doctors that were working uh we also had great coremen great nurses on the team uh my particular role

40:04

was ICU to take care of you know after surgery recovery and get them out i flew

40:09

a couple missions to Bastion to the higher level on uh the 60 uh but that

40:15

particular day I was actually watching a TV show The Office and I heard the bird spin up and it's sort of like our alarm

40:22

clock right uh when you hear the bird spin dust off you know something's going to happen when you hear the the um the

40:30

cobra spin you know somebody's going to get blasted so it was always kind of a a combination right uh but this particular

40:36

day it just happened right so we all mustered up and we all got our roles we

40:42

all did what we had to do and um you know my experience and this is kind of my demon like uh um Craig was saying is

40:51

uh I've always remembered when you first came in and it's you know um and I kind

40:57

of talked to you briefly about this earlier um I remember them bringing you

41:02

in the litter and you were not talking at the time and the question I asked

41:07

where's his IV because I was serving as a perop nurse so my job is to kind of

41:13

circulate the O i'm kind of the clean guy so if they need more sutures if they need whatever so they won't uh break

41:20

sterile field I hand them stuff i also was you know in charge of counting blood

41:25

and tourniquet time all that good stuff so I kind of am from afar so I was

41:31

asking about where's his IV i was getting preop questions um they said we couldn't get one um I didn't see the

41:39

fast one on the chest but Oh it and Oh okay all right so so you

41:44

literally came without any IV access but you had every limb with the tourniquet i

41:50

remember that i could not see your face and I just remember a lot of chard so

41:56

for me that image having such little experience in trauma was kind of

42:03

daunting to me here's everything at one time yeah yeah absolutely and and I even

42:09

asked the medic who was pale-faced is he alive i asked him kind

42:16

of quietly and that's when you moaned kind of trying to tell us I'm

42:22

alive and that's when we moved immediately to the back and I took my

42:27

role in the back and and to me watching these surgeons and nurses and the surge

42:32

techs the corman it was like poetry in motion because I was the third party

42:38

outside and just to see everybody working and we're talking like millions

42:45

of dollars of training for medical school nursing school working the

42:50

hardest to save your life to me was like wow that is amazing like I said poetry

42:57

in motion there was no yelling no screaming everybody knew their role

43:04

and it was almost seven months into our mission we were in a sense like the

43:09

Marine Corps says brothers in arms we had our medical and we had our team we

43:15

were a tight-knit bond and I think part of it is because the Marine Corps taught

43:20

us that right we see how you guys have that tight bond we also had that tight

43:25

bond and and because we're with you we are one and that was our main

43:33

goal and I just thought it was beautiful to see the whole interaction and

43:39

everybody was calm and and because of that and I mentioned it before my

43:45

practice has improved through this experience and and me too I had always

43:52

talked about like when I teach classes for pre-eployment to the corman or nurses I talk about your injury but to

44:00

be honest I didn't know your name until this awesome seer five funds invited me

44:06

to come out here and I was scared to come out here because I didn't know how

44:11

to act even when you walked in here with your brother-in-law I said "Should I give him a handshake should I hug him?"

44:17

I did not know what to do but now getting to know you and meet you to me is closure and closure in a good way

44:25

where where I know what they did what I did was very meaningful because you're

44:30

here today and to hear your story it's like we even talked about it writing a

44:37

book you know writing a book about what you went through and and your your personal demons and the experience and

44:45

now you're turning around and you have a son i mean I think that would be a great book not only for us but for

44:53

others but but that's just my take on it and I appreciate I should write a book but I like to think that I'm not old

45:00

enough to write a book yet oh you are you are one 100% you got I'd like to add

45:06

that um just and kind of on to what Art was sort of one of the things he was

45:12

getting at is um you know doctors and nurses can be very fallible and there

45:18

can be thankfully I haven't spent too many occasions where I've worked in a dysfunctional environment but you

45:25

certainly career-wise have done been and around that and I'll say that that this

45:31

group for both of y'all was opposite of that there weren't a lot of big egos um

45:39

we had various ranking you know physicians and nurses there um but you

45:46

know we kind of jelled as a family and you know there wasn't a lot of yelling

45:51

or or or it was a very smooth calm you know we jumped into

45:58

action is what I observed but everybody worked together and I think that that

46:04

was um a big part of you know why things were so successful um for you and Todd

46:10

was because or you and Ed was because it just you know people worked together but

46:16

so smoothly and got things done quickly and you know uh

46:21

were civil about it i I would also say we were inspired by you as Marines too

46:29

and I have always held the Marines in the highest standards my grandfather was

46:35

in World War II Guad Canadal etc etc but we wanted to you guys also like your

46:43

discipline um your honor um all of those things are

46:49

were very inspiring to us and that also made us act in that way so it we were

46:58

doing it together you know and I I love the I love my Marines i had to go in the

47:04

Navy as a physician but I just I cannot tell you how much I respect and admire you guys thank you but I I'd like to

47:13

jump on that as well and just say in terms of moving

47:19

forward from here because all that happened all that's in the past we're

47:24

here today and and we've got to live our lives moving forward i think we could do

47:30

worse than to to you know keep in mind the honor courage honor courage and commitment core values which is you know

47:37

what we're going to have hard times again in each of our lives come moving ahead and and when that happens you know

47:44

stick with it the honor the courage the commitment to keep moving forward and stay positive and and keep you know make

47:51

every day matter well and that's one thing that we can do is is make a

47:57

commitment to each other to keep living our best lives i believe that that's important

48:03

certainly this I think this is the first chapter because there's a lot of people from our team that were in there that

48:09

aren't here and I mean none of our enlisted are here and I think I think I

48:15

mean I think this is a good preface but I think the book still needs to be

48:20

closed on a lot of people particularly the texts you know but there there are certainly you know a lot of people that

48:28

that certainly deserve their voice you know oh and I I would love to meet them

48:33

with them as well i mean it's amazing like I said it earlier it's amazing to me how many people could fit around such

48:39

a small what's left of a human body to make sure that it get it that it keeps

48:46

living it's just it blows my mind and and just like that one picture the room was completely you know those are the

48:52

texts cleaning the room getting it ready and you know ready for the next one so to speak and those I think a lot of

48:58

those folks you know definitely need their you know so hopefully you know

49:06

this will be you know like I said a preface and and and you know precursor for the next time yeah yeah

49:14

i I would like to ask a question of you Ed and and Todd um you know we were

49:20

obviously there with you at the beginning but collectively as a as a group of physicians and nurses that

49:26

began your care and over the many many months and years I'd love to know what

49:33

you feel like you know we if got anything wrong what was wrong with with

49:39

caring for you maybe where people can learn from that that this is not what you do this is not how you take care of

49:46

a a wounded veteran um I mean I can answer that or if Ed wants to or we both can if if you want

49:53

to go first and then I'll follow after you all right yeah um I mean as far as taking care of a I mean bedside banner

50:00

is something that can be appreciated um a lot of the

50:06

times sometimes you got to hear it the rough way but a lot of the times it's like I understand you're having a bad

50:11

day but imagine the person in the bed and you have to think about them and

50:16

think about yeah your day is not going that great but imagine how they feel so

50:22

that would be one of the biggest things that I could say and I've I've had nothing but nice doctors and nice nurses

50:31

so I you know there was one time where I wasn't very happy with the doctor but

50:37

like I said I I don't know if they were having a bad day or if whatever it was

50:43

but you have to remember that my day might be a little bit worse right now so

50:49

yeah no exactly what uh what Todd said there you know and I think from the

50:55

moment that you all first received me um I I talked about you know immediately

51:00

there was that voice uh soothing me explaining what was going on before um I

51:06

went under you know hey there's a lot of hands that are going to be touching you you're safe you know that reassurance um

51:13

and then also the point blank matter of fact hey this is this is what we have to do you know

51:20

we're taking the hand um that honesty coupled with the good bedside manner of

51:25

reassurance and making me feel comfortable and safe um that was amazing

51:30

and largely I was fortunate enough like Todd to have really good nurses and doctors throughout the rest of my care

51:38

um and there was one instance where it just came back to bedside manner um you

51:43

know and I was fortunate enough to where I was just tired of being poked and prodded and I had a nurse advocate for

51:50

me with uh one specific doctor who was just doing his job right doing his job

51:56

um and every time after that when that doctor came in you know he would instead of just getting down to poking and

52:02

proddding at me he'd always ask "Is it okay if I do this is it okay if I do that?" And that made me feel like a

52:07

human again instead of a patient and that would be the only advice I would offer to any new medic just remember

52:15

there's still people um you know not just the patient in the bed well you can have a million dollars worth of training

52:21

and if you're not compassionate at the bedside what what difference does it make

52:28

yeah no I definitely agree i mean uh you know in the nursing we're I mean not to talk bad about my colleagues here the

52:35

doctors but we're at the bedside 247 right um you know doctors are out there

52:41

doing their thing seeing multiple patients and nurses you know we're we're at the bedside right we answer the calls

52:47

we try to help and yes you know with every profession you have good and you have bad but I think early on in my

52:52

career one of the things because I used to be a corman one of the things that one of the docs told me was you know if

52:58

if um you treat your patient like if it was a family member and how would you

53:04

want them to be treated and use that in your practice and I've carried that on

53:09

you know since I've been a nurse and I think that really helps and it's unfortunate to hear that you know

53:14

something as simple as you know bedside manner is lacking i mean that's something that definitely Thanks for you

53:20

know sharing that because I could go back to my hospital talk to my team and you know kind of make that a point you

53:27

know uh because sometimes we do forget about that and sometimes we're thinking about other things you know and we just

53:32

want here just take this pill man i got to go give other pills but you know that that's you know it's unfortunate so so

53:40

um yeah I apologize on the behalf of uh you know my my colleagues but the red

53:46

pill or the poop all right well I'd like to thank you all for being part of this uh this is

53:53

definitely going to be a great episode and it's a jump back into my podcasting right Kyle

53:59

you didn't get fired this episode you're lucky but I would like to thank you all for being part of my reinition into this and

54:06

getting to meet you i'm glad that I'm here i almost didn't get to make it but I'm glad that I did and I will not I

54:13

will not forget this that's for sure thank you thank you thank you very much

54:18

thank you thanks Tom awesome thanks next time let's let's not be so ser like let's have a fun podcast the next time

54:25

next time i promise i know we got the serious stuff the precursor later today we owe you a beer yeah we still have a

54:30

night yeah we still have the rest of the night who's buying shots oh shots

54:37

not Todd not Todd we didn't start this one off with one and we know why

54:42

what's the number uh 23 23 all right well thank you all for

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