Wallasey TA mum returns home from field hospital in Afghanistan

Feb 1 2012 by Gemma Jaleel, Wallasey News

A WALLASEY mum has returned from a demanding tour in Afghanistan working at the busiest trauma hospital in the world.

Territorial Army soldier Major Lisa Tierney was deployed to the British Military Hospital in Camp Bastion in September.

Lisa was one of around 50 members of 208 Field Hospital, a volunteer unit, which was welcomed back to its headquarters in Liverpool on Monday.

Lisa was met not only by her husband Mike, son Oliver, and mum Peggy but also her three pet dogs.

She said: “It is good to be back, I am the nursing officer in charge of the operating theatres so we have been very busy.”

Lisa works as matron of theatres at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital in her regular job.

She added: “We went out to do a job and did it very well. We have certainly saved lives, which is the important thing.

“It is a privilege to work for the biggest, and probably the best, trauma hospital in the world. The skills we have gained are being brought back to the NHS.”

All of its medics are volunteers drawn from NHS hospitals across Merseyside, North Wales, Cheshire and Lancashire. For the last three months they have been treating the injured and sick in Afghanistan.

The commanding officer of 208 Field Hospital, Colonel Peter Jackson, praised his entire team following the emotional return home. He described his own position as an “awesome privilege” and 208 as “the best field hospital deployed”.

He added: “It’s great to be back, it really is. I’m very proud of everything that the troops have done, they’ve run the hospital to the highest standards and we have now brought them back together with their families. It has been a job well done.”