Special Forces Training for Medical Emergencies employs conventional and unconventional techniques to provide care and treatment. Bernd S. is a specialized instructor of elite forces for medical deployments. The men and women that he trains will later put their own lives on the line, in order to save lives, by carrying out rescues in extreme emergencies. HAIX® was invited to the training center near Frankfurt, Germany where scenarios of all kinds are practiced. Bernd coaches experienced emergency workers in the physical and psychological aspects of such “special situations”. The conditions presented during training are as close as possible to the reality of special forces operations.
A typical training schedule includes a wide range of different scenarios, including training on the measures to be undertaken in the event of injuries to the stomach or chest area, stemming various kinds of bleeds, and intubation of the respiratory tract. “If something goes wrong, the most important thing is to keep calm and rely on mastery of the stress-resistant techniques that have been taught,” says Bernd. “No one involved in such deployments should ever have to think about the reliability of the equipment they are using.”
In one training scenario, a suspicious, dark object is stuck in the wheelhouse of a vehicle that is under observation. “No one who values their life in any way at all would normally approach such a situation,” says one of the trainers. The trainer takes out a small chain-drive go-kart packed with high-tech equipment, including a high-resolution camera, super-precise sensors, and a state-of-the-art gripper. This remote-controlled kit, worth more than $200,000, is specially designed to defuse and remove suspect devices of this type.
Training drills are also carried out to deal with situations in the event that no high-tech equipment is available. Some deployments can be catastrophic, and every second is going to count. For this reason, mastering so-called “stress-resistant techniques” is vital to the special forces. Bernd specializes in providing training in medical deployments of this kind. Participants are trained on how to use “stress-free techniques” in order to remove victims from critical danger zones depending on the type and degree of injury suffered.
As an example, and for training purposes only, Bernd puts a pig’s foot inside a glove in order to realistically simulate the hand of a disposal technician defusing a car bomb. Up to 1000 grams of explosives can be detonated in order to provide a realistic training scenario. After the explosion, not much of the simulated hand is left, the glove is merely left bulging with scraps of skin. Training scenarios like this gives Bernd the opportunity to coach his trainees in the physical and psychological aspects of such a situation.
These special forces medics are also cross-trained in several other areas during their clinical instruction, performing several jobs and tasks, in order to help them prepare for real-world scenarios.
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