From Soldier to Surgeon: On Veterans Day Indiana University Health Honors One of its Own

Sometimes, when Peter Hammer sees the blood and wounds, they take him back. Back to not so long ago, when Dr. Hammer, a trauma surgeon at Indiana University Health, was serving in Afghanistan as the chief of trauma at a NATO medical unit in Kandahar.

Those times, soldiers were brought in one after another, tears streaming down their mud-stained faces, writhing in pain. This was training, a kind of training no one really ever wants to endure. But it was training that has served him well.

“In Afghanistan, we were managing horrible, horrible injuries,” recalled Dr. Hammer, who served eight years of active duty in the United States Navy before coming to IU Health in 2014. “So now when I get to a person with a severe injury as a trauma surgeon, I feel prepared to manage it. I have seen a lot.”

Dr. Hammer, who grew up in Clio, Mich., a suburb of Flint, went to the University of Michigan for his undergraduate studies, then on to medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit.

After a general surgery residency at Detroit Medical Center, Dr. Hammer traveled to Guam, where for three years he was a general surgeon at the U.S. Naval Hospital on the tiny island in Micronesia.

There, Dr. Hammer was one of just three surgeons who handled it all. He saw injuries from car wrecks, stabbings and shootings. He worked in conditions not quite up to the pristine halls of the hospitals at IU Health—and he loved it.

After that tour of duty in Guam, Dr. Hammer completed a trauma and surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He then joined the Navy Trauma Training Center as a staff acute care surgeon at the Los Angeles County - University of Southern California Medical Center. While in L.A., he deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom.

For 223 days straight, Dr. Hammer was on call 24 hours a day seven days a week. He carried a pager and responded anytime, any hour when anyone needed help.

Injuries ranged from mild to severe, but the most common was the hallmark injury of the war, Dr. Hammer said, soldiers who needed amputations. Those surgeries forever changed his life, watching the devastation of men and women who gave it all for their country, losing an arm or a leg while serving. Dr. Hammer also cared for soldiers who suffered injuries from explosions, who came in to the center near death.

Dr. Hammer’s crew was also responsible for the Afghanistan army, whose injuries tended to be worse than U.S. solders because of their lower quality body armor. “If they were alive when they were captured, they were brought to us for medical care,” Dr. Hammer said. “Through it all, we saved a lot of lives. But we also had soldiers die on us. You deal with the after effects. You learn from everything that has happened, every soldier who came to you. And it makes you better.”

The spectrum of services veterans provide in and out of war time is immeasurable. Today, we acknowledge their courage, spirit and amazing contributions. So, if you see Dr. Hammer, or another veteran today, stop and say thanks.

-- By Dana Benbow