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Emergency physician treats Soldiers with enthusiasm
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196th MPAD FORWARD OPERATING BASE NORMANDY, MUQDADIYAH, Iraq (10/14/2004) — After being deployed now for over 10 ½ months, Maj. Lisa Dewitt is still bubbling over with enthusiasm. For the all of the Soldiers she meets and cares for. For the once-in-a-lifetime experience she has gained here. And for the difference she is making here. "I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world," she said. A Soldier from the Florida Army National Guard and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Dewitt had always been interested in the military. She said it seemed like a "natural fit." And after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America, she felt compelled to act. So she began checking into the different services, and determined that the Army National Guard was the best way for her to give back to both her community and her country. "I know this sounds very cliché - I had thought about the military all along - but Sept 11th pushed me over the edge," she said. "I thought, 'I'm an ER doctor, I'm an emergency physician. Who has more to give than me?'" Dewitt earned a bachelor's degree in biology and psychology from Florida State University and a doctorate of osteopathic medicine from the Southeast College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed a one year internship in West Palm Beach, and in 1990 began three years of emergency medicine residency training in Chicago's inner city. She deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in October 2003, only six months after being commissioned, bringing with her 14 years of emergency medicine experience. And for her, it was not a moment too soon. "I joined to serve my country and be an emergency physician in a time of conflict," said Dewitt. "And I was itching to come here; I was dying to get deployed. There are a lot of us like that. This is why we joined; this is what we want to do." Initially deployed to Kuwait in October 2003 on an individual 90-day rotation program for National Guard and Reserve physicians, she was the fifth doctor at the 161st Area Support Medical Battalion in Camp Victory, Kuwait. And rather than having them break in a sixth, she extended for another 90 days. A month and a half later, the 161st redeployed. It was then that she started looking for a way to come to Iraq. So she traveled to another camp in Kuwait and found another unit that said they would take her - the 25th Infantry Division - who was headed to Kirkuk. "I'm an emergency room doctor, so I wanted to get to the very middle of the fight," said Dewitt. "I wanted to be as far forward as I possibly could. And I put a lot of faith in God to carry me where I was supposed to go." As soon as she received her orders, she started looking for a ride north. After "bumming around" a little, she caught a ride with the California National Guard's 1498th Transportation Company and rode in HETTs all the way up, she said with a huge smile. Along the way, she convinced the convoy commander to take a side route to see Babylon, and she and the troops spent the day touring the ruins. It was the only R&R; trip the Soldiers had in their 15-month deployment, she said. The unit dropped her off at FOB Speicher, where she found shelter in an abandoned building. The next morning, the Division Support Commander came in and found her there. After she explained who she was and what she was doing, he told her he thought he might have a better place for her. Two days later, Dewitt found herself with the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team at FOB Warhorse. She was there for nine days when someone suggested they might have an even better place for her. Lt Col. Daniel Mitchell, Commander of the 201st Forward Support Battalion, took her to FOB Normandy a few days later and asked her if she would like to stay there at the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment aid station. She said yes. "I remember being at officer basic course, when I was just learning the Army system. I said, 'Yeah, I'd like to be a doctor at a battalion aid station,'" Dewitt recalled. "And I had so many people tell me, 'You're a female. You will never be a doctor at a battalion aid station for an infantry unit.' And look at me - I'm a doctor at an infantry battalion aid station!" She arrived at FOB Normandy April 2, just before an insurgent uprising, spurred on by Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, erupted throughout Iraq. She worked numerous trauma resuscitations at that time and soon after traveled to An Najaf with the 2-2 element of Task Force Duke. Dewitt feels right at home with the infantrymen and the Soldiers of the battalion, who she said welcomed her with open arms. And her somewhat unconventional bedside manner seems to strike the right chord with them. "She's a good doctor, she's just like our mother," said Sgt. Charles D. Dutton, an infantryman from Charlie Company. "She sewed me up one time, put a couple of stitches in me. She told me to quit crying, it was funnier than hell." The battalion and aid station staffs have also grown attached to Dewitt. The battalion physician's assistant, 1st Lt. Gregory D. McCrum, said that her trauma center experience, gained from treating thousands of patients, has been invaluable. "She's fantastic, she really, truly brings a different dynamic that we didn't have previously," he said. "It just steps us up a notch, gives the men that are out there doing daily patrols and everything else a little added bit of confidence. They know they've got an ER trained physician back at the battalion aid station should anything bad happen to them." Dewitt estimated she and the aid station team have worked about 40 trauma cases. And she's loved every minute of it. "Treating American Soldiers is the greatest honor I've ever had in my entire life," she said. "And this sounds really silly, but I see like, this 20-year-old infantry kid up in a turret behind a 50-cal and he's putting on his little bandana thing, and to this day, it takes my breath away." Dewitt is as proud of the aid station team as she is of the infantrymen they care for. She described an incident in the first week of September, when the donkey a 19-year-old Iraqi sheepherder was riding stepped on an unexploded ordinance. U.S. Soldiers who were on a nearby range heard the explosion and went to investigate. One of the aid station medics who was out with them worked on the young sheepherder and then brought him to the aid station. The team stabilized the man and within 30 minutes had him evacuated to the Army hospital at Balad, where he was immediately taken into surgery. They later learned that he would live. "He would have died had our Soldiers not been out there, had our medic not been out there, had our aid station medics not been up to snuff," Dewitt said. "I mean, those are the heroes. It's all the guys I work with. It's the medics, it's the PAs (physicians assistants). The doctors get the glory, but the PFCs who are up in the turrets, the specialists who are out being line medics, carrying their aid bag and their weapon, those are the true heroes." Dewitt has also been busy working with Soldiers from both civil affairs and psychological operations, trying to make a difference in the Iraqi health care system. Together, they've gone out to visit local clinics and hospitals, doing assessments and meeting with the officials from the ministry of health. She and the clinic staff have worked closely with the 205th Iraqi National Guard Battalion there and helped to get their aid station up and running. She would like to stay involved and help in any way she can. She has enjoyed working with the Iraqi health care professionals and said they are very proactive, but that treatment is hindered by a lack of supplies. "It's hard. The entire country of Iraq is very short on medical supplies and medicines," said Dewitt. "They're at crisis point because Saddam Hussein decided to keep his bunkers filled and let his medical supply warehouses go into deficits." Task Force 2-2 Commander Lt Col. Peter Newell has asked Dewitt to remain with them until they leave. Her answer is that she will stay as long as she is still having fun and as long as she feels she is still needed. And she said she is still having fun. "There are things that I want to do, things that you can't do in the civilian world, like throw a grenade," she said. "That's on my list of things to do, throw a grenade, shoot a Mark-19, ride in an Abrams. I want to be a gunner. I've gotten to blow things up, I've shot a whole bunch of different weapons, I've gotten to drive different vehicles, so it's been fun. This is one of the best vacations I've ever had. I mean, you can't go to Cancun and shoot a 50-cal, right?" Last 10 Stories
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2004 National Guard Bureau |
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