Medical evacuations in Iraq war hit 18,000 - (United Press International): "Medical evacuations in Iraq war hit 18,000


By Mark Benjamin
United Press International

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- In the first year of war in Iraq, the military has made 18,004 medical evacuations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Pentagon's top health official told Congress Tuesday.
The new data, through March 13, is nearly two-thirds higher than the 11,200 evacuations through Feb. 5 cited just last month to Congress by the same official, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
In both cases, Winkenwerder described the evacuations as 'total evacuations out of theater,' and he said both times that the majority of evacuations represented routine medical treatment and not life-threatening injuries.
'As of March 13, 2004, data from the Transportation Command shows 18,004 total evacuations out of theater,' Winkenwerder said Tuesday.
'As of February 5, 2004, data from the Transportation Command shows 11,200 total evacuations out of theater,' he told a separate House panel Feb. 25.
A spokesman for Winkenwerder, James Turner, said the latest figure represents multiple evacuations for single patients -- including moving some soldiers back into theater. He said the 18,004 evacuations was for 11,700 patients.
Turner did not return e-mails or phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday asking for elaboration.
Winkenwerder appeared Tuesday before a House Government Reform panel with four Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers. Those soldiers offered a litany of complaints about poor health care for reserve and guard troops -- problems they said have been widespread during the war on terror, particularly on return to the United States.
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