May 13, 2007, was the antithesis of a peaceful Mother’s Day at Iraq’s secluded Al Asad Army Combat Support Hospital.

The blast of an improvised explosive device rang out in the chaos of a nearby combat zone, and approximately one dozen soldiers — some with severely mangled limbs — arrived at the hospital by helicopter soon thereafter, shattering the morning quiet of the desert.

“You don’t really know what’s happening. You just wait to see what shows up,” said Dr. George Berndt, a Napa resident, surgeon and Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who worked at the hospital from late February to early June of 2007.

Berndt said later on Mother’s Day, the hospital hosted a blood drive after running out of units in an attempt to compensate for patients’ extensive blood loss. Dozens of soldiers lined up to donate, he said.

Thanks to the efforts of Berndt and other American military surgeons who served during the three month period, fewer than five of the 200 soldiers treated for severe war wounds at the hospital lost their lives. Most of the wounds were “blast injuries with combined blunt, penetrating and thermal injuries,” wrote Berndt in a newsletter distributed by his employer, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vallejo.

Berndt said the facility where he served, Al Asad Army Combat Support Hospital, is a sprawling campus in a remote desert area sandwiched between Syria and Baghdad. Located in Iraq’s Anbar Province, the hospital is composed of prefabricated buildings. Berndt said the facility houses 12 ICU beds, two operating rooms and 20 ward beds and the hospital has the same equipment found in hospitals throughout America, including surgical saws and drills, a CAT scan, whole blood, plasma, X-ray rooms and more. The hospital also receives daily shipments of medical supplies from Baghdad by helicopter, he said.

“It’s important to know there’s state of the art care there. ... It’s as good as it gets,” he said.

Most of the combat injuries Berndt treated were large leg and torso wounds caused by improvised explosive devices — both vehicle-bound weapons and bombs buried under streets. Pelvic fractures and massive blood loss were also common, and Berndt said one patient required more than 70 units of blood after a bullet ravaged his liver.

Besides causing damage from initial impact, Berndt said, IED injuries typically result in infection — the explosions shoot debris into the body that cannot be removed. Berndt said such infections typically do not respond well to antibiotics. “We kept cleaning the wounds out and removing more and more dead tissue,” he said.

Berndt said in addition to American soldiers, he and other surgeons at Al Asad also treated Iraqi soldiers and children, Iraqi police and American contractors. And while most of the injuries he treated at the hospital were life-threatening, there is no place for panic in the operating room.

“You have to make sure everything is taken care of and that you haven’t missed anything. You have to be focused on your job,” he said.

Fortunately for Berndt, he was well-rested during his stay nearly halfway around the world — most of the activity happened during the day since insurgents prefer to videotape their attacks, he said. Once the surgeons stabilized patients’ conditions, he added, Americans were flown to Germany by Air Force personnel while Iraqis were sent to civilian hospitals.

Berndt said he was inspired to join the military two years ago after his 29-year-old son, George, joined the Army approximately eight years ago. A captain in the Army, Berndt’s son served in Iraq for one year and Afghanistan for eight months, and is now in training for special forces, said his stepmother, Marie Rabak.

Berndt said he plans to serve as a combat surgeon again in May, when he hopes to travel to Afghanistan. While his wife said she worries about his safety, she strongly supports his decision.

“(My husband and I) feel so privileged to live in this country and it has given us so much. It was an opportunity for us to give something in return. It was a sacrifice on George’s part and somewhat on my part in being without him, but it was nothing in comparison with what the men and women of the military are doing when they serve,” said Rabak.