Soldier readjusts to life back in Lawrence

E.R. scratches don't compare to battle wounds, nurse says

The injuries that nurse Josh Adams sees in the emergency room at Lawrence Memorial Hospital are a far cry from those he recently spent a year treating in Afghanistan.

At LMH he more often deals with cuts and bruises – not gunshot wounds and missing limbs.

“It’s the most heavily littered land mine area in the world,” Adams said of the war-torn mountain nation. “People are stepping on land mines all of the time – not the U.S. men but Afghanis. I’d say 80 percent of our patients were Afghans.”

An Army reservist, Adams was called to duty in December 2003. After training, he was sent to a former Soviet air base at Bagram, 45 miles north of the capital, Kabul.

“We arrived in the middle of the night, and you can’t see a thing,” Adams said. “We’re 5,000 feet up and its freezing :. They say ‘follow me’ and you don’t know how far you’re going to go.”

Lawrence Memorial Hospital nurse Josh Adams, 26, of Lawrence, administers a shot to Lisa Krische, 20, of Lawrence, during his Thursday afternoon rounds at the hospital. Adams recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan.

The region around the air base was littered with land mines left behind by the Soviets, Adams said, and the land remains dangerous.

“Kids would have third-degree burns, limbs blown off. It makes you wonder if and when we leave what’s gonna happen to them,” Adams said.

There was no wheelchair accessibility or a civilian medical system for caring for the injured, Adams said. Afghanis live a difficult life – no running water, no electricity. He said the Afghans he dealt with were hardworking, humble, helpful people who were finally finding some peace.

” I think, given the opportunity, they’re gonna have a good chance to turn their country around,” Adams said.

But he also said he’s only been back since late April, and he’s not yet removed enough from the experience to assess it.

“I don’t have a complete picture. Maybe when the war’s over I’ll think about it,” he said.

Sgt. Josh Adams, of Lawrence, rides in a helicopter while in Afghanistan.

Working in a war-torn country gave Adams a different perspective on his job as an licensed practical nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

“When someone was hurt over there, they were really hurt. You can’t fake those injuries. In America, people come into the ER with a scrape, and I think that’s not a real injury. I never take it out on my patients. Sometimes when I go home and think about the day, I think that scrape wasn’t that bad. But that’s the great thing about America. We can see doctors quickly about anything, and I hope that exists in other places.”

Adams is studying to be a registered nurse. He said he loves being a nurse and being a part of the military even if that means he could be called back to duty at a moment’s notice.

“No one prays for peace like a soldier,” he said.