What have you seen Combat Medics do down range that was out of the scope of practice?

I made a response , question was do you know what intubation is, I think I could have worded it better, I meant no disrespect , if you can spell it I am sure you know what it is, again my apology and no disrespect .

I made a response , question was do you know what intubation is, I think I could have worded it better, I meant no disrespect , if you can spell it I am sure you know what it is, again my apology and no disrespect .

After the Army, "downrange", I whitnessed a former army medic and a former navy corpsman work together to save the life of a man on our team. To be brief, the local doctors, by their ignorance, were trying to kill our team mate. Our medical pros had to argue with the local doctors and guard their patient. They guarded and treated him 24/7, for a week until he was evacuated to home country care. He survived only because of those 2 pros. God bless the "Docs".

On the subject of Combat Medics, this fall is a motion picture called (Hacksaw Ridge) will come out. It's about the life of one of the greatest Combat Medics in history, Desmond Daus. I would recommend everyone on Rally Point watch it. A trailer is now available if you wish to watch it.

Not really downrange, but when I was at Carson, my Senior Medic used to drop his Med gear (hiding from the 1SG) and walk the line with us. He ran patrols with us, he pulled fireguard, etc. He basically turned himself into our Medical Grunt!

Started my career as a Medic. Scrubbed surgery from 17 to 21 years old. Absorbed knowledge at a
very fast rate. The two Surgeons I scrubbed with taught me to perform minor surgeries on my own. My eyes and hands , knowledge of anatomy became very good. I went on to study after my tour, earned a couple of college degrees, went back in the service to fly airplanes. Guess you could say I went from defense to offense. No one ever complained or questioned my ability. I found my fellow airmen appreciated anything I could do for them. Treat your medics well, they do work hard to earn your respect. Compassion is a strength not a weakness.

A combat medic in my unit had way too much to drink at a unit function, so some other combat medics took IV solution from our classroom supplies (we were a training unit) and flushed her out in the barracks.

In a perfect world once a medic hits E-5 they should be sent to the W1 course at Bragg. When I was tasked as a Medical OC/T with 1st Training Brigade USACAPOC I ran into a few senior NCOs that had not had the pleasure of having thoughtful PAs & Doctors that I had who went out of their way to train any medic that wanted to learn. These were medics that worked in hospital units or with a FST before getting transferred to a CA unit. They had no idea what it is like to not have surgeons with an OR right there. They would try to sharp shoot me about scope of practice or the proper way to package a patient. The NCOs that did this had no idea what is to have to wait hours for evac to arrive while trying keep someone alive all by your lonesome. If you are going by the official scope of practice people wll die. I am pretty confident in stating that there are quite few service members alive today because a medic did what they had to so someone could live. I have tried to train medics that believe because they outrank you they know better and they are usually the ones to tell you are going beyond the official scope of practice as laid out by AMEDD. This is why I think W1 should be required when a medic becomes an NCO, so the NCOs who lead are trained up as much as possible. We DO set the example. Well I did at one time before getting the blue ID card.

When I taught at the Medical NCO school we conducted and certified passers with the ACLS card, even giving Instructor Potential. Also, at the end of training we would have a hands on exercise known as the Goat Lab where an anesthetize goat would be provided for advances procedures such as cut downs, cricothyroidotomies, and chest tube insets ions. The soldiers working under the PA who are trained by him/her are actually working under his license/certification and they are responsible for medical actions the soldier takes. The soldiers are there to assist the PA and Docs and if the PA it's kind of the person on the grounds responsibility to utilize their personnel as the tactical situation requires. IMO of course.

This was not a combat situation and was long ago but I never miss a chance to give our medics a pat on the back. The only surgery that I have ever had in my life was done by an SFC medic at Ft. Jackson who removed a tumor from my neck. From beginning to end this medic handled all of my treatment and I was extremely impressed by his knowledge and professionalism.

For some time the 68W school had very low admission requiremts while at the same time graduation requirements were as high as ever. This meant high attrition for folks who should never have even been let into that MOS. I know the navy corpsmen are a smaller cohort with higher standards expected. Just about every line medic who is sent as borrowed medical manpower to the local TMC has to be extensively trained to standards. It is important to realize too that many medics have some advanced college credit or else they worked civilian EMS. Invariably the really bright ones are not fully utilized while the underperforms --who should be doing motor stables work-- are sent to the TMC to triage troops who are suddenly ill on the morning of Brigade fun runs

There was a medic forward with us, PFC Ryan and I remember for a fact he was from Presque Isle, Maine. I know he gave me HIS clean pair of socks for which I was so grateful. He denied it but I KNOW. It wasn't just me, all of our boots were always wet as we all remember well.

The hardest thing is getting tech to the boots on ground. Took us years to get tourniquets mandatory. On the upside, dustoff is getting so quick these days that we can have most casualties at a role 2/3 within a few hours. It was common for us to get casualties below an hour from incident. The survival rate was nearing 100% if we could get them into surgery within the golden hour. But we need to keep pushing things like quick clot and smart tourniquets to the combat medics to maintain until they hit the role 3.

Great question/discussion right here! I served 14 1/2 years as a combat medic, so I believe I have some nuggets to share on this. When I deployed to Baghdad, Iraq in 2004, I had 12 years and E5 rank on my "belt", but volunteered to be a platoon line medic with my Infantry unit, since there were too many NCO's on FOB for sick call anyway, lol! My company and platoon often ran missions far from base, so I was expected to not only handle any "trauma" medicine we are trained for, but also do my level best to diagnose/assess routine or intermediate illnesses or treatments that many junior medics probably not have ability or experience on. As a young medic, my NCO's drilled into me to take personal responsibility to never stop training or learning, even if above scope! Never stop reading, learning, seeking, pestering PA's/Dr/RN, etc to get more experience and chance to be the best medic you can be. I often treated IRAQI FN's wounds, sutures, even dx and tx illnesses often. I was mostly complete with RN Education at that time, so DR/PA's trusted my judgement. AMEDD dept needs to push directive that those medics who strive for more than just meet standard, have more opportunities to climb medical ladder! I had to pursue RN on my own, no real help from ARMY on that, my only real "gripe".

My brother was a medic during the Cold War and he said if you worked hard enough and were reliable that doctors would let you do more.