RIP, Good Doctor

[Just_A_Mom]

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20081226_Penn_trauma_surgeon_killed_in_Iraq.html

John P. Pryor, 42, of Moorestown, the dedicated leader of the University of Pennsylvania's trauma team and a decorated major in the Army Reserve who wrote eloquently about the painful parallels between battlefield deaths and urban homicides, was killed on Christmas by enemy fire in Iraq while serving as a combat surgeon.
Dr. Pryor deployed Dec. 6 and was with a risky frontline surgical unit when he was killed by shrapnel from a mortar round. It was his second tour of duty in Iraq.
Dr. Pryor, who was experienced and cool under pressure, was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and raised near Albany. He completed surgical training at the State University of New York in Buffalo, and came to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. After a fellowship in trauma surgery and critical care, he joined Penn's surgical faculty and served as director of the hospital's nationally recognized trauma program..........................

click on the article to read on....

 

[Capt MJ]

Military Medicine

Thanks for the moving post, Just_A_Mom. Heartbreaking for the family, and here's a shoutout for all those military healthcare providers who go in harm's way to care for their brothers and sisters in arms. In all all-volunteer force, these dedicated folks could have easily chosen to stay safe in civilian medicine -- but they didn't.
Any of the young'uns on here who are thinking about military medicine, it's not just base hospital assignments, it's battlefield medicine.