{"id":498,"date":"2015-12-02T11:09:21","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T16:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toh.masm.ca\/en\/?p=498"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:39:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:39:48","slug":"explosive-emergencies-treating-patients-and-soldiers-in-warzones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/explosive-emergencies-treating-patients-and-soldiers-in-warzones\/","title":{"rendered":"Explosive emergencies: treating patients and soldiers in warzones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Robert Johnston (wearing the maple leaf surgical cap) had to wear a sidearm (strapped to his right leg) in the operating room as a protocol in Afghanistan.<\/em><\/p>\n

An explosion in Kandahar was Dr. Robert Johnston\u2019s first mass casualty incident in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got about 10 or 12 severely injured Afghan civilians ranging in age from about six months to quite elderly,\u201d said Dr. Johnston. \u201cAll of a sudden hard decisions on many levels had to be made quickly, and effective teamwork was no longer just a catchphrase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Johnston is a consulting anesthesiologist at The Ottawa Hospital and a Specialist Medical Officer with Canada\u2019s Department of National Defence. His experience in Kandahar is one of many dealing with limited supplies, space and personnel in emergency situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital itself was small and everything we did or didn\u2019t do could have an impact on the coalition\u2019s ability to carry out military operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"JE<\/p>\n

As a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence, Dr. Robert Johnston contributes to international peace and security through operations around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

During seven overseas tours since 2003 to Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East, Dr. Johnston has provided trauma care in support of Canadian and partner nations\u2019 military operations.<\/p>\n

He also works as an advisor and trainer for local military medical personnel in addition to participating within the Royal Canadian Air Force\u2019s critical care transportation team. Dr. Johnston has done a number of transoceanic medical transports of injured soldiers.<\/p>\n

\"JE<\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Johnston has seen trauma and trauma systems from a global perspective. His experiences have taught him how to improvise when resources are lacking in emergency situations.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Johnston\u2019s experiences have had an impact on his perspective of our health-care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s astonishing how many things I take for granted here in Canada: electricity, oxygen, buildings built to a code, vaccine programs, clean water and so on,\u201d he said. \u201cEspecially in anesthesia, I think, we have the luxury of being able to agonize over things that have a relatively small impact on the health of Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Robert Johnston (wearing the maple leaf surgical cap) had to wear a sidearm (strapped to his right leg) in the operating room as a protocol in Afghanistan. An explosion in Kandahar was Dr. Robert Johnston\u2019s first mass casualty incident in 2008. \u201cWe got about 10 or 12 severely injured Afghan civilians ranging in age […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}