Army Advances Combat Medicine


Better battlefield care could have saved 1,000 lives in the past 10 years, according to a new Army report released Friday. “It’s a tremendous amount of people we’re losing before they even reach medical care,” said Army Col. Brian Eastridge. Those deaths, many of which involve soldiers bleeding to death before they can be transported, are what the armed services hope to prevent with new treatments. Soldiers today have better chances than ever of surviving wounds sustained on the battlefield, but Eastridge said the advancements aren’t enough. Of more than 4,500 American combat deaths since 9/11, 2,700 survived for a time after sustaining fatal injuries, the Army report said.