Landstuhl Hospital

I'm trying really hard to focus on what I'm grateful for especially with times being a little challenging right now. Lately, I've focused on how blessed I am to have my family healthy and to have my husband home. A couple weeks ago, we ended up in the ER at the hospital here- Landstuhl hospital. I had a UTI that I had been fighting for a couple weeks and needed to be seen. It was the weekend, so we had to go to the ER, the clinic was closed. Before arriving here, we heard this was one of the best hospitals in the world. I think it is the largest hospital outside of the US. You don't usually think of a military hospital as being one of the best in the world- this one is.

Landstuhl treats all patients, trauma and non-trauma, evacuated from both combat zones (Iraq and Afghanistan), to include coalition military members and civilian government employees and civilian contractors. We knew before coming over here that the soldiers from the war were transported to this hospital. Sitting in the waiting room brought the reality of the war to life. While waiting to be seen, they brought down four or five soldiers from the upper levels of the hospital to transport elsewhere- likely back to the US. Obvious they were injured in combat; seeing them, we felt closer to the war than ever before. Almost felt like being in the middle of the war zone. As the elevator doors opened and the stretchers were wheeled out, each soldier had different injuries- some more obvious than others. One image I will never forget was a soldier with stitches all the way around his head. I couldn't help but wonder what damage was done and what road he had ahead. Another looked as though he had an arm injury or possibly lost his arm in the war. It was bandaged from top to bottom. Each was lay still on the stretcher- most looked heavily sedated. There was almost a reverence in the waiting room- a quiet as each passed through. These soldiers and what they sacrificed made me feel as though my UTI was no longer of any significance. I also couldn't help but feel grateful to them for their service and also overwelmed with emotion as I sat there holding my husband's hand.