Three Scott & White vascular surgeons have joined two others from the Temple, Texas, medical center who have volunteered to fill a slot in the surgery rotation of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany Feb. 2-17 where many of the soldiers injured in Iraq are treated.
Injuries incurred in the Iraq war are unique in that they include blast injuries from IEDs (improvised explosive device) and high-velocity injuries from crashes. Vascular surgeons repair the damaged arteries and veins that are injured as a result of the IEDs by using both minimally invasive and open surgery.

William Todd Bohannon, MD, is in surgical rotation at Ramstein Feb. 2-17; Clifford J. Buckley, MD, will be in surgical rotation March 29 – April 13; and Robert W. Feldtman, MD, will be volunteering March 15-30. Scott & White surgeons who have returned from volunteer surgical rotation include Marvin D. Atkins, MD, Jr., who volunteered Nov. 26-Dec. 9., 2007 and Ruth L. Bush, MD, who volunteered Sept. 1-16, 2007.

William H. Pearce, MD, with McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern voluntarily filled a slot in the surgery rotation at Ramstein Jan. 7-20.
 These six surgeons are among 21 members of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) to relieve the limited number of vascular surgeons in the military who are filling positions in military hospitals in the United States and internationally.

“Our members understand how important expert surgeons are to the military in saving the lives and limbs of these young military heroes,” said K. Wayne Johnston, SVS president. “We were contacted by SVS member, Col. David Gillespie, the vascular surgery consultant with the Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General and a professor of surgery at Walter Reed Medical Center, and our members quickly responded. I am proud to represent a specialty that unselfishly contributes where they are needed.” VTN