ECU surgeon to discuss experiences as Army physician in Iraq
GREENVILLE, N.C. — His experiences while saving lives under fire will be the topic when Dr. P.J. Schenarts, an assistant professor of surgery with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, speaks at a free public lecture Monday, Feb. 20.
Schenarts’ talk, “Reflections on Being a Surgeon During the Fourth World War: Iraq and Afghanistan, 2004-2005,” will be from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in Room 2N-86 of the Brody Medical Sciences Building on the campus of the medical school.
Schenarts has been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. File photo
From July 2004 until last July, Schenarts was on active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last year, he received the Bronze Star, awarded to Army personnel for heroic or meritorious action during military operations. Schenarts, a trauma surgeon, was cited for providing care to soldiers wounded in combat and providing command leadership in an austere, forward environment during combat. Schenarts said such action occurred several times in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Schenarts, a major, commanded Alpha Team of the 933rd Forward Surgical Team, a unit that provides immediate surgical care for those who are too wounded to be evacuated to combat support hospitals. A forward surgical team works in a tent with limited supplies, one emergency medicine bed, a field operating table and two intensive care beds. In Afghanistan, Schenarts’ team consisted of himself plus an orthopedic surgeon, a nurse, a nurse anesthetist, an operating room technologist and several medics.
In Iraq, his team worked in Tikrit, Samarra, Fallujah, Baghdad and Mosul. In 2003, he was deployed to Afghanistan for six months.
This lecture is sponsored by the Department of Medical Humanities at the Brody School of Medicine. For more information, call 744-2797.
Individuals with disabilities requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act should contact the Department for Disability Support Services at (252) 328-6799 (V) or (252) 328-0899 (TTY).