Documentary: "Fighting for Life" (Learning to care for those in harm's way)

Last Sunday night an extraordinary documentary screened on the ABC, entitled "Fighting for Life". It was promoted as one of the most powerful anti-war documentaries ever made, and it presented the human cost of war in a moving and compassionate way.

Made in 2006, the documentary covers the work of doctors, nurses and medics caring for injured soldiers on the front line in Iraq and the doctors-in-training at the Uniformed Services University, where they learn the specialised skills required for military medicine - "Learning to care for those in harm's way".

I was particularly struck by one line late in the film which stated that "tens of thousands" of service personnel had sustained war-related injuries. When this occurs in the context of a natural disaster, it is an international tragedy, and when we talk about "mass casualty incidents" in a Western country it is usually tens or at most hundreds of people. Here is the hidden cost of war - vast numbers of (often young) individuals who suffer horrible injuries that may affect them for the rest of their lives and face the daunting challenge of rehabilitation and building a new life quite different to what they had originally envisaged for themselves and their families. We see amazing courage, determination and resilience in survivors and the genuinely good people who care for them.

It suddenly dawns on you that the cost of war is not just the cost of the war machine but the ongoing costs that must be borne by individuals and society as a result of "service above self".

Even though as a doctor I have to confess to being somewhat inured to the the sight of blood and traumatic injuries, I did not feel that the documentary was either excessively gory or excessively voyeristic. It sensitively portrayed real life on the battlefield and its aftermath and could not have been made without the consent and support of the injured soldiers and their families.

I remember as a teenager watching a scene from the film "Doctor Zhivago" where two armies are marching to war and the invisible narrator comments that both sides were "praying to the same God for victory". It is poignant that in this film we see casualties from both sides being cared for by US Army medics.

Documentaries such as "Fighting for Life" remind us that there are no winners in war, and if only humankind could find a better way to solve its conflicts than resorting to guns and violence. The health professionals in the film are dedicated to caring for the fallen soldiers and to helping them rebuild their lives, but you can't help thinking that they harbour a wish that the need for military medicine might just become redundant ...

The documentary is highly recommended and is a fascinating insight into the "bigger picture" of the casualties of war.