Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, TX –
The U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center at
Fort Sam Houston set a new record in 2015 with the most patients being admitted
in a calendar year. In 2015, there were 819 patients admitted to the Burn
Center. The previous record was set in 2012 at 793.
Burn Center Director Col. (Dr.) Booker T. King confirmed the
number, stating that 30 patients were military service members – including two
from Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan – while 43 were Department of
Defense beneficiaries and the remainder of the patients were civilians from the
South Texas region.
Collocated at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, the
USAISR Burn Center is the sole burn unit for the DOD and the largest burn
center in Texas. Since 2003, 992 combat burn casualties and more than 4,500
civilians have been treated by approximately 300 medical professionals.
According to King, treating burn patients is a complex
process and it is essential for burn care providers to maintain their
proficiency to care for service members and civilian patients.
“Every time that I have deployed to a combat zone the
majority of the patients were civilians,” he said.
King added that maintaining skills is necessary in order to
save lives during wartime. The burn center staff provides pre-deployment
training to combat care providers.
“For some this is their first exposure to critically burned
and injured Warriors,” King said. “We are also important to the military
because of the combat casualty care research that we conduct for the
battlefield wounded.
“We are an important combat skills sustainment platform. We
have to stay engaged in burn care treatment to maintain that skill. It’s not
like a switch that you can turn on and off,” King added. “No one knows when or
where the next big conflict is going to be, but we have to be ready.”