New Exhibit on USAF Hospital at Balad Opens at National Museum of Health and Medicine

EXHIBIT FEATURING EMERGENCY ROOM FROM AIR FORCE HOSPITAL IN BALAD, IRAQ OPENS AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE 

Washington, D.C. – The National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (NMHM), at Congressional initiation and with support from the U.S. Air Force, has opened a new exhibit that offers a rare view inside the Air Force’s former tent hospital in Iraq. NMHM is located on the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit, “Trauma Bay II, Balad, Iraq,” depicts how combat medics, surgeons, physician assistants, nurses and other healthcare team members from the Air Force, U.S. Army and Coalition forces work together to the save lives of injured and wounded service members in Iraq. Despite traumatic wounds caused by devices such as improvised explosive devices, between 95 and 98 percent of the wounded who receive medical care survive.

A key element of the new exhibit is a section of the cement floor (measuring seven by seven feet square and weighing nearly three thousand pounds) that was the site of a trauma bay in the Air Force’s theater hospital in Balad. “Bay II,” as it was known, was where many of the most critically injured American service members were treated between 2004 and 2007. The floor serves as mute evidence to the heroic efforts made to save the lives of wounded service members and others that passed over it during the course of three years of the war in Iraq.

The exhibition features the cement floor and emergency room display under an eight-foot long section of the actual emergency room tent, shipped to the Museum direct from the Air Force base in Iraq.

Also on display are several plywood wall panels and a litter inscribed with the names of some of the service members – from American and Coalition forces – who rotated through the Balad hospital; a Special Medical Emergency Evacuation Device, known as SMEED, used by an Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Team to provide ICU-level care while a patient is being flown from Iraq to Germany or the United States; regional anesthesia devices that have revolutionized pain management of wounded soldiers; and items used by medical personnel to mark unexploded ordinance after a insurgent mortar attacks at Balad.

“We are honored to preserve these artifacts from the current conflict,” said Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the Museum’s director. “As a museum devoted to the history of medicine and with our special emphasis on military medicine, we are ideally suited to preserve and eventually exhibit these artifacts. We are eager to offer the military community the opportunity to interact with these objects in a museum setting.”

“Trauma Bay II was a very special place. Many of the most seriously wounded personnel in Iraq were treated on this very piece of concrete. It has very profound meaning for the medical personnel who worked there, as well as for the patients they cared for; that is why we have it,” said Alan Hawk, NMHM Historical Collections Manager.

NMHM became involved with the Balad hospital after a Congressional delegation visited Iraq in August 2007 and learned that the emergency room was to be demolished. The Museum is grateful for the support of Air Force personnel who were instrumental in overseeing the careful removal and shipping of these unique artifacts from the current conflict.

For more information, contact Tim Clarke, Jr., the Museum’s Deputy Director for Communications, phone (202) 782-2672, email [email protected].

Links:

National Museum of Health and Medicine Web site U.S. Air Force news article (features photographs)

About the National Museum of Health and Medicine:

The National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, established in 1862, inspires interest in and promotes the understanding of medicine—past, present, and future—with a special emphasis on tri-service American military medicine. As a National Historic Landmark recognized for its ongoing value to the health of the military and to the nation, the Museum identifies, collects, and preserves important and unique resources to support a broad agenda of innovative exhibits, educational programs, and scientific, historical, and medical research. The Museum is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), a tri-service Army, Navy and Air Force agency of the Department of Defense with a threefold mission of consultation, education and research. The Museum is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. Visit the Museum Web site at www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum or call (202) 782-2200.