Mission Critical | A broken soldier's way home

EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above contains content that may be graphic for some audiences

As our nation's longest war winds down in Afghanistan, thousands of military families can thank an elite group of U.S. Air Force medical providers for bringing their critically-wounded loved ones home alive. Those doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists were trained at the University of Cincinnati's Medical Center in a program largely modeled after the civilian hospital's life-saving methods.

WCPO followed the military medical workers from the Cincinnati classroom to Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield, where one Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) would be called on to save a man's life.

They're on a mission: To take the most gravely injured soldiers out of war. When the 4 a.m. call comes, this medical team must decide if the critically-wounded man can be saved. The infection from a gunshot wound is growing worse. Will he be healthy enough to fly? Watch the video above to find out if he survives.

Read the full story here: http://www.wcpo.com/MissionCritical

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ABOUT THIS STORY:

WCPO multimedia reporter Taylor Mirfendereski began reporting on Mission Critical nearly a year ago at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

She traveled to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan for two weeks in September to document the medical teams that trained at UC Medical Center. She was embedded with the U.S. Air Force's 455th expeditionary aeromedical evacuation squadron and also lived with U.S. Army flight paramedics from Charlie Company 3-82.

She interviewed dozen of people, recorded hundreds of hours of video and took hundreds of photos.

Reporter, photographer, videographer / Taylor Mirfendereski (@TaylorMirf)

Designer and multimedia producer / Brian Niesz, Alyssa Roll

Graphics / Brian Niesz, Mark Nichols, Libby Duebber

Production Assistants / Jessica Noll, Kareem Elgazzar, Terron Austin, Rachel Tracy

Executive producer / Jennifer Cobb

Editor / Chris Graves