Nurse Practitioner Completes Challenging 15-Month Tour In Iraq

By Susan Malandrino

Maj. David Hernandez (M.S.N. ’02) has 19 years of service in the U.S. Army, but during the past year he faced his toughest challenges yet.

A nurse practitioner who is completing a 15-month Iraq tour this November with the 10th Mountain Division, second brigade, Hernandez has worked as the main medical provider for two patrol bases in Quarghuli village, located in the area known as the “Triangle of Death.”

During his deployment, he saw more than 1,000 patients, including American soldiers, Iraqi soldiers, independent contractors and Iraqi citizens.

In addition to frontline battle injuries, Hernandez treated routine illnesses, cases that may be seen in any clinic. He and a team of four Army medics witnessed everything from severe bullet and shrapnel wounds to dysentery and heart attacks.

They also provided medical care to villages in the area. “It’s difficult at times to see all of the villagers that come to this mission, since I may be the only health care provider they may see,” he said via e-mail this summer.

Hernandez credited the military with equipping his aid station with up-to-date technology and medical equipment, but there were limitations, too. In the field, getting specimens back to the lab before their short life spans ran their course often proved difficult, as did operating without X-ray or other equipment.

Hernandez received his bachelor of nursing degree from the University of Texas in San Antonio while stationed at Brooks Army Medical Center. He then served as an intensive care unit nurse for several years before deploying to South Korea.

While stationed at Fort Eustis, he enrolled in the family nurse practitioner master’s program at Old Dominion. He took many classes via TELETECHNET, the university’s distance learning network, which helped ease the burden of balancing school and work.

“During the day I was a soldier performing my duties, and in the afternoon I was a student,” he said. “Old Dominion made that transition easy.”

According to Hernandez, the clinical training he received at Old Dominion in the areas of urgent care, pediatrics and women’s health prepared him for his latest deployment. “Having exposure to the different diagnoses and case studies made it an easier transition into the formal practice,” he said.

Hernandez expects to leave Iraq in November 2007 and return to his wife and four children in Camp Zama, Japan, where he will spend a year fulfilling the requirements of his overseas assignment before returning to the states.