VIDEO: The hospital in Helmand's skies
26 Aug 09
Using a Chinook helicopter fully equipped with the latest medical technology, the Medical Emergency Response Team is providing life-saving treatment to British troops in Helmand province. Unfortunately this is their busiest summer yet.
Corporal Colin Smith, an RAF paramedic, Major Paul Hunt, an Army Emergency Department doctor, and Flight Lieutenant Peter Whitwood, an Emergency Department nurse, work to stabilise an injured Afghan boy
[Picture: Corporal Mike O'Neill RLC, Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]
The Medical Emergency Response Team, known as the MERT, is the British forces airmobile hospital. The Chinook helicopter they use has everything a specialist trauma team need to provide cutting-edge treatment for even the most seriously injured troops on the battlefield.
The team are on call 24/7; flying into danger zones to pick up casualties, they are literally saving lives on a daily basis. The call can come at any time.
The video clip posted below shows the MERT being called out to a village in the Nad e-Ali district from their base at Camp Bastion.
After a gut-wrenching flight over potentially hostile territory, the Chinook landed in a small clearing outside of an Afghan village compound.
The victim was 15-year-old Patay Muhammad who had the bottom part of his leg missing, the stump covered by a first aid field dressing.
He was brought by the MERT to Camp Bastion's hospital unit. His father, who came too, said:
"My boy was out helping his uncle. He'd been sent out to fetch a goat when shortly after there was an explosion.
"I appreciate this help and the treatment he will receive in the hospital, it would take much money to have him treated at a private hospital.
"I am very pleased with the behaviour of the British, it was very nice."
Once back at Bastion's state-of-the-art hospital, young Patay was surrounded by a dozen medics who rushed to continue the life-saving work of the MERT.
Watching over the scene was Colonel Tim Hodgetts, Bastion's field hospital medical director, who said:
"The standard of care here is second-to-none, it is world-leading. You will not find this standard of care elsewhere."
Although many of the casualties who come through the hospital at Bastion are injured coalition forces soldiers, it has seen 200 Afghan nationals pass through its doors in the last four months.
As Helmand province's combat air ambulance, the MERT operates in some of the most challenging environments imaginable.
Working as a flying emergency department, they're supported by a bomb disposal team, fire and rescue unit and an infantry close protection squad.