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Special Forces Medic Reaches Out to Afghan People
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

Most local doctors had been trained in Pakistan decades before and had received no updated training since. Army medic SFC Victor Andersen said the most common medical treatment before the Americans' arrival was egg yolk and tobacco spit. "They would rub this into any wound," he said. He spoke of a man the team saw who had a dislocated wrist. Here's how local hospital's doctors treated him: "Egg yolk and tobacco spit," Andersen said. "This was their cure for everything."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Sgt. 1st Class Victor Andersen had never seen a donkey bite before. That's why he couldn't identify the large crescent-shaped wound on a young boy in Afghanistan. In fact, the Special Forces medical sergeant saw a lot of things in Afghanistan that he never expected to see.

Andersen, a member of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion from Fort Bragg, N.C., recently returned from a seven-month stint in Afghanistan. He shared some of his experiences in an interview during a Pentagon visit in October.

He came across the injured boy, believed to be around 9 or 10 years old, on a routine trip in the Orgun Valley region. "He had the strangest laceration, a perfect horseshoe shape," Andersen said.

He said it resembled a bite, "but it was way too big to be from somebody's mouth." The wound was clear through the boy's hand to the bone.

The wound was several hours old and had to be scraped out and disinfected. Andersen wasn't carrying anesthetics, but the boy didn't need any. "These kids are tough as nails," he said. "He just stood there as stoic as could be and just appreciating the attention."

Only after someone arrived who could talk to the boy did Andersen learn about the boy, his donkey and the wound. "Then he rode off on the same donkey," he said.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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