Doctor returns from Afghanistan

ARMY DOCTOR: Katia Hayes in Afghanistan.

Don’t be fooled by the long legs and blonde hair – Katia Hayes is trained to kill.

The 27-year-old is home after a six-month deployment to Afghanistan as the New Zealand Army’s provincial reconstruction team medical officer.

She received intensive training before she went, learning about weapon systems, what to do when under fire, how to withdraw, and shooting using both blank and real bullets.

"Even as a medical person I still went through it," she says. "If my own life or a patient’s is at risk and there’s only a particular weapon lying around, then I need to know how to use it.

"It has to be instinctive to know what to do."

Dr Hayes was part of the 130-strong Kiwi troop rotation that arrived in the Bamian province of Afghanistan in April.

She was head of the medical team and her main priority was looking after the New Zealand officers and soldiers.

She mainly dealt with muscular and skeletal injuries and general practitioner work, including illnesses caught from the dust.

"We call it poo dust," she says. "Afghanis just poo everywhere. They don’t have the luxuries of plumbing."

Dr Hayes also worked with local clinics and hospitals.

She organised a team of American medical specialists to travel around the province teaching doctors, nurses and midwives about infectious diseases, obstetrics and heart conditions.

Her most harrowing experience came while she was with a patrol passing the Band-e-Amir lakes.

It was very hot and they were on their way back to base when given permission to go for a swim.

Dr Hayes knew she’d dislocated her shoulder as soon as she hit the water after jumping from a cliff.

She spent the next two hours in "excruciating pain" talking the soldiers and medic through the steps of putting her stiffening shoulder back into place.

Dr Hayes is now the senior medical officer based at the army’s Waiouru Military Camp and spends her time off with family in Auckland.

Kiwi troops are likely to be asked to stay in Afghanistan for longer as the government prepares to review the six-year-old deployment amid mounting pressure on the United States to do more.

Dr Hayes "won’t say no" if asked to return.

- © Fairfax NZ News