Military may rethink ‘golden hour’ evacuations in Afghanistan

[CBEMT]

By Barbara Starr

CNN Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military in Afghanistan may be rethinking its so-called ‘golden hour’ policy of evacuating wounded troops off the battlefield to major trauma centers within sixty minutes of being injured, an official said Wednesday.

The idea is being pushed by Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, who just returned from Afghanistan. He was told by medical personnel there they want more flexibility in the system.

“He did indeed hear from several who suggested that getting a wounded servicemember to ‘the right facility at the right time’ may be more critical than meeting the ‘golden hour’ threshold,” Conway’s spokesman, Maj. David Nevers, told CNN. Conway now plans to forward those ideas to top Pentagon leaders and medical personnel.

“The commandant made clear that from his perspective, the key is to stabilize the wounded as soon as possible,” Nevers said.

Medical personnel have said they would like the flexibility to keep the critically wounded at field locations for longer than one hour to stabilize them before sending them to major trauma centers in places like Bagram Air Base.

[Dustdevil]

Interesting. I did not encounter any inflexibility in Iraq, with regards to local decision making for when to hold and when to punt to Balad, and I was mostly with the Marines. I wonder if this is something they have become anal about in the last year or so, or what. Regardless, I agree that rigid protocols are not a competent replacement for intelligent medical judgement.