2006年VOA标准英语-High-Tech Medicine Saving US Military in I

By Deborah Block
Washington, DC
31 January 2006
 
watch Trauma¹ Treatment report
 
  
  
The violence in Iraq has cost many people their lives -- Iraqis, American military, and other coalition².  So far, more than 16,000 U.S. soldiers and marines have been injured -- more than half by roadside bombs.  VOA's Deborah Block reports on the military medics and doctors who take risks to help them.

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More than 2,000 U.S. military have been killed in Iraq.  That figure might have been higher but because of advanced medical care more are surviving their wounds.  During World War II, 30 percent of injured troops died.  In Vietnam it was 24 percent.  But in Iraq, so far, only nine percent have died.   Body armor has been a major reason.  Helmets and flak jackets have saved many lives.

So has the presence of skilled doctors with state-of-the-art medical technology.  A combat support hospital at the start of the war -- March 2003 -- had multiple operating rooms, CAT scans, and high tech laboratories.

 
caring for wounded military in Landstuhl
  
At one military hospital, doctors have the expertise³ and experience to perform any type of surgery except organ transplants.  Those with serious injuries are rushed out of Iraq to a U.S. military base in Landstuhl, Germany.  They are flown on a medevac plane - a mobile intensive care unit, complete with ventilators and heart monitors.

Dr. Bob Medell says the pilots can bring an injured soldier together with doctors in Germany faster than ever before. "I can say fairly definitively⁴, in the Korean war he'd be dead.  In the Vietnam War, he'd probably have a 40 percent mortality.  Here, I don't know -- maybe 1 in 500.”

But as the medical care has improved, so have the enemy's IED's -- the roadside bombs that are hurting many soldiers.

 
Dr. Paul Maurer
  
Dr. Paul Maurer of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York says,  "Instead of one area being traumatized, for example, a bullet to the abdomen⁵, now you'll have an individual with three fragment wounds to the chest, one to the neck, one to the leg, and one to the head all simultaneously⁶."

So the race continues between those who want to hurt, and those who want to heal.

1 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

4 definitively   

adv.决定性地，最后地

参考例句：

• None of the three super-states could be definitively conquered even by the other two in combination. 三个超级国家中的任何一国都不可能被任何两国的联盟所绝对打败。 来自英汉文学
• Therefore, nothing can ever be definitively proved with a photograph. 因此，没有什么可以明确了一张照片。 来自互联网

5 abdomen   

n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分)

参考例句：

• How to know to there is ascarid inside abdomen?怎样知道肚子里面有蛔虫？
• He was anxious about an off-and-on pain the abdomen.他因时隐时现的腹痛而焦虑。

6 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。