Clearing the Fog of War

Rare heart condition contributed to airman's death

An airman who died in October after finishing a physical fitness run had an abnormal heart rhythm caused by a rare condition that one cardiologist says he's never seen in recruits.

Airman 1st Class Steven D. Williams became disoriented and unsteady after finishing a 11/2-mile run at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Oct. 19. The Air Force said he suffered cardiac dysrhythmia, in which the heart beats too fast or too slow, restricting the flow of blood to the body.

It was caused by a “sludging of red blood cells in the veins and arteries” as a result of “sickle cell crisis,” the Air Force said.

Dr. Matthew Phillips, an Austin cardiologist who studied sudden deaths among recruits while he was in the Air Force in the 1980s, said Thursday he had never seen a case like this one.

“The study was 20 years of data and we didn't have one sickle, but then, the population's changed too,” he said.

The Air Force said Williams, 26, of Detroit, had sickle cell trait.

People with the trait, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, usually do not exhibit symptoms of sickle cell disease, but that “some people with SCT have been shown to be more likely than those without SCT to experience heat stroke and muscle breakdown when doing intense exercise, such as competitive sports or military training under unfavorable temperatures.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Rare-condition-killed-Lackland-trainee-3617917.php#ixzz1yljXdRdY

 

Vaccines countering viral illnesses at Lackland AFB

Lackland AFB, where scores of recruits have fallen ill and two have died from virus complications since 2007, is fighting back — and winning.

The base has been giving trainees two vaccines that had fallen into disuse but have been revived. They have cut upper respiratory illnesses with fever by 87 percent. Such illnesses typically cause cold symptoms but can also trigger pneumonia.

The vaccines for adenovirus 4 and 7 are working nationwide. Found safe in tests at Fort Sam Houston, they've been given to more than 48,000 Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard recruits.

“It's a very big success looking at the numbers now,” said Air Force Maj. Kevin Fajardo, who tracks trainee health at Lackland. He cautioned that the vaccines protect against just two of the dozens of adenovirus strains and that much more time is needed to see how well they work.

“It's very early. We've only been immunizing for three months,” he said.

Troops in basic training have long been vulnerable to falling ill because they live in close quarters and share facilities. At least 52 adenoviruses have sickened 15,000 trainees throughout the military per year over the past decade. One virus, serotype 14, was linked to the deaths of two airmen here in 2007 and 2009.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Vaccines-countering-viral-illnesses-at-Lackland-3362987.php#ixzz1ykxjHjU6

 

Army hoping new tourniquet prevents death

As Army Cpl. Jamie Smith bled badly during a firefight in Somalia in 1993, a medic tried to save him. But it wasn't enough.

Nearly 20 years after the battle popularized in the movie “Black Hawk Down,” Smith's former doctor talks of the Combat-Ready Clamp — and how it might have saved the infantryman and other troops.

“When I look at spreadsheets and numbers of people that died and the reasons why they died, I remember talking to the casualties and their families and their mothers and their wives and girlfriends,” said retired Col. John Kragh Jr., a research orthopedist at Fort Sam Houston's Institute of Surgical Research.

Easily carried in a medic's kit, the 1-pound device, dubbed the CRoC, is used by some special operations troops in Iraq, where around 500 remain, as well as in Afghanistan. It puts pressure on the groin to stop femoral artery bleeds, which are among the worst in combat. Because the artery is big and carries a lot of blood, a rupture can cause victims to die, some in only moments.

Smith, an energetic GI in the 3rd Ranger Battalion, suffered a long and painful death. A bullet cut his femoral artery and vein, an injury that Army Lt. Col. Robert Mabry, a former ISR researcher and Green Beret medic who survived the battle, said has a 50 percent death rate even if victims are quickly hospitalized.

Smith, 21, was one of 18 Americans to die in the raid.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Army-hoping-new-tourniquet-prevents-deaths-3343318.php#ixzz1ykwsS3y2