VOA标准英语2010年-Trauma Surgeon Makes Difficult Calls i

U.S. Navy trauma¹ surgeon, Commander Zsolt Stockinger, assesses patients as they arrive at a combination triage facility-helicopter landing zone the U.S. military established on the shore of Port-au-Prince.  On this day, at Terminal Varreux, he decides which patients should be treated aboard the hospital ship Comfort.  The decisions might be clear-cut, but they are not easy to relay.  VOA's Suzanne Presto² reports from a triage center in Port-au-Prince.

The trauma surgeon's words are translated into Creole so the mother can understand the news about her daughter.  The five-year-old  girl in a pink striped shirt lies motionless on a stretcher between the surgeon and her mother. 

The news inside the tan medical tent is as devastating³ as the earthquake that wrecked⁴ Port-au-Prince two weeks ago.

The mother makes no sound, and her face falls almost imperceptibly.  She has just been told that her daughter suffered brain trauma so severe that there is no hope of recovery. 

Doctor Stockinger tells her there is no remedy - not in any hospital, not anywhere in the world. 

He speaks these words to her: The last thing that she remembers is before the earthquake, when she was still happy.

Later in the day, after hours of assessing patients and making difficult calls, Doctor Stockinger sits on a metal storage trunk, finding shade in the shadow of a tent.  In this dusty spot, between the grassy⁵ field where helicopters land and lift and the sea that shines in the sweltering Haitian sun, he discusses the decisions he needs to make and needs to accept.

"And I just have to explain that to her that I am sorry and I would like to help but there is nothing that can be done," said Zsolt Stockinger. "I have said that a lot today, unfortunately."

He bases these decisions on the resources available on the hospital ship - the surgeons, the equipment, the numbers of patients awaiting  different procedures.  The criteria⁶ changes, depending on the needs of the patients already on board.

"There are obviously tens, hundreds of thousands of people who are injured and need care, and they will not all fit on the ship," he said. "So someone has to decide who is going to go to the ship for care and who is not.  And that is really what I am out here for."

He says he decides what requires surgery, what could be handled by some other medical facility, and what, in his words, there is no point operating on.

"Here it is more a question of, 'Can they get better at all?  Or is the amount of resources we apply to helping⁷ that one person worth it because then we will be taking resources away from several people who could benefit from those same resources?," asked Dr. Stockinger.

Dr. Stockinger draws on his experiences as a trauma and critical care surgeon in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he adds that these circumstances are decidedly different.

He says the toughest part here is not deciding who will get treatment on the Comfort hospital ship, as it can be clear if the ship offers the medical opportunity to help the patient.  The challenge, he says, is relaying that information to the parent or doctor or nurse who accompanies the earthquake victim.

"For example, the mother of that baby," he said. "I mean it is a horrible injury, but there is nothing on earth that can change that."

Vehicles drive up the dirt path to the tan triage tents, kicking up dust.  At one point, three ambulances, buses and vans are in front of the tents carrying patients awaiting Doctor Stockinger's eyes.  Sometimes the patients are sent to a tent to await helicopter transport to the Comfort.  Sometimes he must bear far more dire⁸ news.

"As I have said, I have done it before," said Commander Stockinger. "I will not say you get used to it, because if you get to the point where you get used to it, you have to stop doing it."

And, with each decision, he looks to the future. 

"You say to yourself, 'I am doing this to save someone else," he said.  "I have not met that person yet.  But, by saying no to this one, I am saying yes to
someone else who will come in next or later and I am saving that
person's life by saying no to this person."

As for the little girl, Doctor Stockinger tells the mother that caring for her and feeding her - as the mother has been doing - are the only things that can be done.
 
A representative of the Haitian government is on site, and he says he has arranged for the girl to be taken to a pediatric hospital run by a Catholic priest.  She is loaded into a van, and her mother climbs in beside her.  It rumbles⁹ off, kicking up dust.

When a brightly colored truck pulls up to the triage unit later in the day, bearing still more patients for Doctor Stockinger to assess, the mother is in the back of the truck, still holding her motionless daughter in her arms. 

Neither's expression has changed. 

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 presto   

adv.急速地；n.急板乐段；adj.急板的

参考例句：

• With something so important,you can't just wave a wand and presto!在这么重大的问题上，你想挥动一下指挥棒，转眼就变过来,办不到！
• I just turned the piece of wire in the lock and hey presto,the door opened.我把金属丝伸到锁孔里一拧，嘿，那门就开了。

3 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

4 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

5 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

6 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

9 rumbles   

隆隆声，辘辘声( rumble的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• If I hear any rumbles I'll let you know. 我要是听到什么风声就告诉你。
• Three blocks away train rumbles by. 三个街区以外，火车隆隆驶过。