By Jason Bruderick
Reading Eagle
December 3, 2009
The 30,000 additional troops President Barack Obama is sending to Afghanistan will benefit from vast military medical improvements that have been made since the war began in 2001, a Reading Hospital trauma surgeon said Wednesday.
"Our ability to treat the injured soldier is really at what we'd expect in the civilian world, which is phenomenal," said Dr. Forrest B. Fernandez, medical director of the Reading Hospital Trauma Center.
Fernandez returned Oct. 29 from his second deployment to Afghanistan, where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve Medical Corps during his three-month stay.
Fernandez, 46, of Wyomissing was first deployed there in 2003 and has also served in Iraq.
