Saturday, March 31, 2001

By Ron Jensen, Kosovo bureau

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — The call came just after lunch Thursday for Task Force Medical Falcon to expect perhaps 10 patients with possible severe trauma, the result of the shelling along the Macedonia-Kosovo border late that morning.

Capt. Dixie Manroe, the officer in charge of the emergency room, was told to board a helicopter flying to the scene. That left Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Parrish, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the ER, to manage the "controlled chaos" that followed the initial call.

"We called ‘mass cal’ [mass casualty], which means we’ll have seven or eight trauma teams in here," Parrish said. "My job was to assign people to a trauma team."

He had plenty of people to choose from. The medical folks are in the middle of a transition. One Army Reserve unit is on its way out; another just arrived.

"It made for a pretty crowded emergency room," said Parrish, an emergency room technician from Tulsa, Okla. "It looked like a logistical nightmare. But it wasn’t. It was controlled chaos."

Meanwhile, Manroe was flying to Krivenik, where the shelling had taken place just north of the Macedonia border.

"I was showing the newcomers around on foot," she said Friday. "My commander called me back to the ER in full battle rattle."

In the chaotic first minutes, the report was of four fatalities at the scene. That proved untrue.

She was making her first flight in nearly seven months in Kosovo.

"That was kind of frightening," she said. "We were told there was mortar fire. I thought, ‘I’m going home in four days.’ "

The nurse practitioner from Missouri made the 30-minute flight admiring the beauty of the countryside and bemoaning the fact that she left her camera at the hospital. She also wondered what awaited her in Krivenik.

Along also was Dr. (Maj.) Tom Cataldo, a general surgeon from New Jersey who had arrived with the new unit only three days earlier.

His first thought: "This is an exercise."

He was told to augment any effort ongoing in Krivenik. When he arrived, the victims had already been evacuated.

"They were still searching for more casualties," Cataldo said. "We were primed to do whatever was needed. As it happened, they didn’t find any more casualties that needed our help."

Back at Camp Bondsteel, one casualty arrived as Parrish was rushing into the hospital. An 18-year old Albanian with arm, leg and chest wounds had been brought by civilian ambulance.

The staff was preparing for more.

"It’s a bit of a rush. We get excited," said Spc. Octavio Corona, a medic who will be leaving next week to return to life as a full-time student. "You don’t know what to expect."

Nearby was Capt. Juan Borge, a Southern Baptist minister in Puerto Rico, who just arrived. He is officer in charge of the 407th Medical Ambulance Company.

The early introduction to the possibilities of Kosovo will serve well the newcomers, he said.

"It was an eye-opener," he said. "This can happen any day, any minute."

Soon, the 18 year old’s 60-year-old uncle arrived with similar wounds. They had been together when a shell hit.

At 3 p.m., a journalist from Associated Press Television Network arrived, dead from injuries he received.

It soon became clear the anticipated rush of casualties was not going to happen. The two Albanians underwent surgery and were in stable condition Friday morning.

Around the hospital Friday, the newcomers were returning to their indoctrination while the old-timers were packing for the trip home, which will take place Monday.

"My heart was still pounding when I went to bed last night," Manroe said.

Spc. Rolando Bayaca said his thoughts were on the upcoming departure date.

"The closer we are to going home, the more something happens," he said.

"I’m afraid they’re going to close the border to Macedonia and we won’t be able to get through and fly back home."

But no one was disappointed that the number of casualties originally expected did not materialize.

"The fewer patients the medics have, the better," Corona said. "We don’t like to see people hurt. When we only got, like, two patients, that’s cool."

RELATED STORY:
          Task Force Falcon deputy commander recounts deadly shelling

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