If people are getting hurt, you need to be there to pick up the pieces,” says Major Andrew Kirkpatrick, recalling his time at the Role 3 Multi-National Medical Facility in Afghanistan. This was only one of the messages he delivered at the Canadian Association of General Surgeons Forum in Victoria earlier this month, when he and seven other military doctors spoke at a course on catastrophe surgery for victims of disaster, terrorism or war. The course was designed to allow the civilian surgeons attending to benefit from the lessons learned overseas by the military surgeons, all of whom had served in Afghanistan. “The course was designed to deal with as many aspects of CF surgery as possible including vascular, orthopaedic and maxillofacial surgery,” says Maj Vivian McAlister, a surgeon in London, Ont. He joined the CF immediately after serving in Afghanistan as a civilian.