400 soldiers wounded in month-long Marawi crisis

From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 27): 400 soldiers wounded in month-long Marawi crisis

Some 400 government troops were wounded in the month-long battle in the Islamic City of Marawi since the armed conflict broke out last May 23, a military doctor said here.

In an interview last Monday, Col. Jonna Dalaguit, head of the Army Station Hospital at Camp Evangelista here, said that only 77 soldiers are now confined at the Army hospital while the rest were confined at three other hospitals in Cagayan De Oro City.

She said that some soldiers who were slightly wounded were treated as outpatients while others opted to return to their units in Marawi City to continue to fight.

The wounded soldiers and police officers came from the 1st Infantry Division, the 52nd Mechanized Company, the Philippine Marines, the Special Operations Command, the Field Artillery Battalion, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF).

Dalaguit said that although the nearest hospitals from Marawi City are located in Iligan City, the wounded were brought to Cagayan De Oro City because of better medical facilities here.

For instance, Camp Evangelista Station Hospital has 100 beds and enough surgeons, Orthopedic physicians, anesthesiologists and nurses compared to the public and private hospitals in Iligan City.

“The wounded are either airlifted or being brought in military ambulances,” Dalaguit said.

Dalaguit’s medical personnel also monitor the health conditions of all patients in the three other hospitals in Cagayan de Oro City even though they are being treated by civilian doctors.

The Camp Evangelista Station Hospital team is being augmented by medical personnel flown in from the AFP Medical Center and the Philippine Army General Hospital in Manila.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/997598