Jul 08
25
A wounded Australian soldier died in Afghanistan after his evacuation to hospital was delayed by a communications bungle, a senior Dutch military doctor has claimed.
Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, the sixth Australian to be killed fighting the Taliban, was fatally injured in a bomb blast on July 8 while on patrol with the SAS. Defence Force Chief Angus Houston has insisted the young man was airlifted out "immediately" after the attack in Oruzgan province in southern Afghanistan. Three other soldiers were injured, two of them also from the Australian SAS. But Royal Netherlands Army emergency doctor Ed van der Zee, who was part of the Dutch medical team standing by at the Tarin Kowt military base to receive the casualties, says Signaller McCarthy did not reach hospital for two hours, instead of the anticipated 10 to 20 minutes. By then, he had bled to death. Lieutenant Colonel van der Zee says the incident has caused friction between the US military, which was responsible for medivac operations, and Dutch command at Tarin Kowt, where the bulk of Australia's army reconstruction taskforce, infantry and special forces are based. In emails obtained by The Weekend Australian, Colonel van der Zee describes how US commanders refused to put a medivac chopper in the air until a helicopter gunship was available to escort it. The mission was to come from the US airbase at Kandahar, 123km south of Tarin Kowt, in accordance with arrangements between the coalition partners. But Colonel van der Zee said US controllers "forgot" to inform the Dutch at Tarin Kowt that the assigned Apache escort helicopter was undergoing maintenance. "It took two hours where it usually only takes 10-20 minutes," Colonel van der Zee complained in a July 15 email, outlining the delay in evacuating Signaller McCarthy. In another email, Colonel van der Zee wrote: "He was badly injured on both legs. However, he was alive for an hour. We will never know what might have been or what we could have done." The Australian and Dutch military have closed ranks, refusing to discuss Colonel van der Zee's allegations. Contacted by email by this newspaper, Colonel van der Zee, who is still in Afghanistan, said he was not free to comment publicly on McCarthy's death. He was at Tarin Kowt at the time of the attack on the Australians, but had not worked on McCarthy, who was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan and had received a commendation for his courage under fire. "I wasn't directly involved in the care of the Australian soldier," Colonel van der Zee wrote. "I only know that it (the air evacuation) took two hours and he was dead on arrival." "It is well accepted in civilian trauma units that if a casualty is retrieved ... within one hour ... their chance of survival is significantly higher than if their evacuation is delayed beyond this time," the surgeon said. "In the frontline war setting, where injuries are more severe than in the civilian setting, military trauma units believe that soldiers must be evacuated within the 'golden 30 minutes' if they are to have a reasonable chance of survival.|
Botched medivac as Digger in Afghanistan lay dying
The Australian, Australia - 23 hours ago
McCarthy's parents, who were hugged by Kevin Rudd at his military funeral, could not be reached at their Gold Coast address. The Prime Minister has warned ... |
