In October 2011, medical professionals of the 250th Forward Surgical Team treated two patients in a simulated field environment exercise.
The 250th and its higher headquarters, the 62nd Medical Brigade, teamed up with Madigan’s Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington to perform the procedures.
Not only did the team successfully resolve their patients’ medical issues, they were able to gain valuable experience for their next deployment.
During the training exercise, members of the team set up three 6XB DRASH Shelters as a mobile field hospital, complete with all the medical equipment needed to perform the surgery and treat their patients. Once set up, the team, which typically consists of a surgeon, a nurse anaesthetist, nurses and operating room technicians, went to work on their patients.
Forward surgical teams like the 250th perform unique medical missions that can be very demanding. Typically these teams can be called on to deploy within 24-72 hours to anywhere in the world. Having portable, dependable and easy to use DRASH Shelters, surgical instruments, and operating room equipment really makes a difference when you need to be deployed quickly in an area that might not have the infrastructure in place to support medical services.
"This is as safe as working in a regular hospital setting," says Alan Place, a senior field technician for DHS Systems. "DRASH Shelter Systems have successfully proven their ability to maintain an ambient environment making procedures better for the patients and those working to save their lives."
In fact, the company has been working to make surgeries in field hospitals even safer. Recently, it introduced a new breakthrough nano technology offering 99.9% protection against deadly microbes that come in contact with it.
XYTEX 500 is a new shelter fabric that is exclusive to DRASH Shelters. The secret is the company’s proprietary technology, which consists of a layer of nano sized spikes that lie in wait to rupture the cell walls of invading microbes.
Soon to be in full production, XYTEX 500 is a promising new technology available to make field hospitals that much safer.