USU Student Helped Save Friend and Fellow Soldier
By Christopher Austin
In 2007, Army Maj. Grigory Charny was in his second year of medical school at Uniformed Services University (USU) when he received the phone call.
He had known Maj. Jim Hochstetler for the past six years, after they first met at the Army’s 25th Light Infantry Division in Hawaii. The two became fast friends, and even though their careers diverged over the years, they kept in touch. While Charny went on to military medicine, Hochstetler was selected for special operations deployment. Neither expected it, but their paths crossed again with that phone call as Charny was informed that Hochstetler had been injured in Iraq.
“I just walked out of class when I heard he was in the operating room,” Charny said. “I was privileged at Walter Reed, because I was a student at USU. The [otolaryngologist] who was working on Jim let me scrub in and help him.”
“Dr. Charny was instrumental in helping me,” Hochstetler said. “We’re kind of on the same wavelength when it comes to explaining the injuries. He was taking the recommendations and the things that the doctors were doing with me and distilling them down into what I absolutely needed to do, and some of the things I probably should do.”
This was no easy task, as different approvals were needed from both the military and medical to put Hochstetler back on active duty, and medical approval had hit a snag.
After he was transferred from WRNMMC to another hospital, a psychiatrist wanted to perform multiple tests on him for their research, since they hadn’t seen injuries like his before, Hochstetler said. Luckily, Charny was able to step in and provide input that led to Hochstetler not having to take the tests and being approved to return to deployment.
“Based on his injuries, I thought he was done with Service, frankly, and I was so happy when he made his recovery,” Charny said. “Jim’s a very determined West Pointer. He’s not going to allow anything to stop him. He went right back to jumping, fast-roping and doing all those things Special Operators do.
Every military doctor has to consider the possibility that they may have to care for someone they know, Charny said, and that’s why, in the infantry, Service members have been trained to move and operate under the idea that anyone they know in the field can be hurt or killed. By objectively viewing patients, military doctors are able to ensure their safety and that they are professionally cared for. Combat medics face this on a daily basis.
While Hochstetler was in the hospital, his family roomed with Charny and his wife. (Image credit: courtesy of Army Maj. (ret.) Jim Hochstetler) |
“We would insert them and later pull them out of tight spots, if they needed us,” Charny said.
They even remained in touch after Charny briefly left the army to return to school to get his Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases Master’s degree from Georgetown University. He returned to active duty and now is an assistant professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at USU’s F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine.
“Grig’s a brilliant guy and he’s going to finish what he puts his mind to. He takes his background as a combat guy in the infantry and does an outstanding job as an emergency med doctor. Especially for guys coming back from places where they sustained injuries in combat,” Hochstetler said.