INTERVIEW: Major Sandra West

Major Sandra West is the senior doctor at a military base in Ottawa. She was stationed on the Kandahar Air Force Base (KAF) from August 2007 until the end of February 2008. While at KAF, she was the officer in charge of primary care, the clinic opened 24/7 for walk-in patients. An integral part of her job was to lead the teams at the Role 3 hospital when trauma cases arrived.

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Gillian Findlay: This is not your first mission?

Major Sandra West: It's been along time since my first mission. This is very different from my first mission. I was out of the military for many years. My first mission was in my first time in the military and it was in the Golan Heights. Very quiet, 200 Canadian personnel, the worst that happened is they'd tried to kill one of the snakes and you'd have to make sure they hadn't been bitten, but this is very different.

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Gillian Findlay: You've seen so much. You've been here since August. It's been six months or going on six months. I know it gets very, very busy there, but are there particular cases that stick with you?

Major Sandra West: There's a lot of cases that do. I think probably the thing that sticks with me the most is getting off the plane when I first arrived here back in August I mean greeted by my predecessor who said, welcome to Kandahar, there's 11 causalities arriving in an hour. So, an hour later I was standing in a trauma bay thinking I'm not really prepared for this, but in fact I had been well prepared, and I was not just watching what happens, I was actually in the middle of it, in the thick of it. So that really stuck with me. And it did me a lot of good to be thrown in that fast.

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Gillian Findlay: I think another thing that will surprise Canadians is the fact that you treat detainees. You treat the enemy?

Major Sandra West: I don't know why that would surprise Canadians, because that is a standard yeah the insurgents haven't signed the Geneva Conventions but we have and uh detainees, local civilians, even irregulars are entitled to the same medical care that you would give to anyone under the Geneva Conventions. So the triage of patients is done strictly on the basis of medical need.

Gillian Findlay: Do you know if it's a detainee who's coming in? Do you know if it's an insurgent that's coming in?

Major Sandra West: Oh absolutely.

Gillian Findlay: And does it make a difference?

Major Sandra West: Once they get to my door, they're a patient.

Gillian Findlay: But as you're treating that patient, you have the knowledge that this is somebody who is fighting against coalition forces, maybe has been responsible for the death of some of these coalition forces, and yet you're now being called upon to treat him?

Major Sandra West: Exactly the same thing happens back home in an emergency room. You may have a child dying as a result of a MVA in one bed and the drunk driver in the next. You still have to take care of both of them.

Gillian Findlay: It's been our observation since we've been here that things get there's a different atmosphere when a Canadian comes in. Would you agree with that?

Major Sandra West: Oh yeah.

Gillian Findlay: Tell me about that.

Major Sandra West: Emotionally you're going to be that much more concerned. This is someone coming in wearing exactly the same uniform as me. This is it really is a band of brothers. These are my colleagues. If I ever met them before, it doesn't matter. They're my colleagues and even though they're getting no better care than anybody else, there's a lot more anxiety when it's a Canadian coming in. And part of the anxiety is, is it going to be somebody I know.

Gillian Findlay: Is that right?

Major Sandra West:And of course this unit has lost two medics. And those were both tough losses.

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Gillian Findlay: Why did you want to come here?

Major Sandra West: I didn't make a choice to come here. The government made that choice for me. I made a choice to join, because I believe that the Canadian forces is doing some good work, and this was the place where I could make a difference.

Gillian Findlay: You know how divided our country is over this. Stephen Dion was here the other day saing that's it. Canada shouldn't have a combat role anymore at all. What do you think?

Major Sandra West: Again, it's really not for me to decide. I think there is a lot of re-building to be done in Afghanistan. There are many roles that need to be played. Stability, education, medical care, agriculture, what role Canada plays is a decision for our government and it's a democratically elected government.

Gillian Findlay: But what do you believe? What's you're opinion?

Major Sandra West: Put on a uniform, you don't have an opinion anymore.

Gillian Findlay: You don't strike me as the kind of woman who doesn't have opinions, I have to say Sandra. You don't want to say.

Major Sandra West: I'm here. I do what I'm told, and if I did not believe in what I was told, I live in a democratic country and I'm working in a volunteer organization. I have options.

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Gillian Findlay: But I'm sure it's taken a toll? You're away from your family.

Major Sandra West: Yeah. It's always tough being away from family, and that's the hard part is being away from the family, but this has been the most exciting, the most rewarding part of my medical career and my medical career is a few years long now. But I've not had an opportunity like this before.

Gillian Findlay: Would you do it again? Come back again?

Major Sandra West: Leave my family again, I'd rather not. If I were coming back to do something like this again and that were the right thing to do at that time, yeah I would come back.