Karen Joynson’s deployment with 34 Field Hospital in Iraq came to a dramatic end when she was picked up and flung across the camp by a whirlwind, breaking eight ribs and her collarbone.

The encounter with a dust devil left Karen unable to continue working in the exacting conditions of Southern Iraq, and also earned her a new nickname – Dorothy, after the character in The Wizard of Oz who was carried over the rainbow by a tornado.

Karen is still suffering the after-effects of her injuries more than three months after the incident, but can remember nothing of her brief, violent unscheduled flight.

Talking to Navy News Online, Karen (30), a Medical Support Assistant in the Royal Naval Reserve said she had been mobilised in early March, and within two weeks was on her way to Kuwait, where the team acclimatised and got used to handling the equipment and erecting tents ready to deploy close to the front line in Iraq.

Karen moved into Iraq with 34 Field Hospital at the end of March, although her luck was out as they moved in – her coach broke down, and after sitting for hours in limbo they arrived at their rendezvous some time after their colleagues.
The work pattern was well-established by the weekend of April 12-13, by which time temperatures were rising to the high 40s Centigrade and it was usually far too hot to sit outside during the day.

On Sunday April 13, Karen recalls the heat was a little more bearable, and she and her friends were flicking through a newspaper, where they came across the story of Pte Jessica Lynch, the female American soldier injured when her convoy came under attack and who was later rescued by her compatriots.

It was reported that, among other injuries, she had suffered a broken leg.

“ I said that must really hurt,” said Karen. “We talked about it, and I said that I was 30 years old and had never broken a bone or even spent time in a hospital as a patient. I suppose I was asking for it ...”

They carried on sunbathing, then as it became overcast, Karen and Anna Croll, a reservist Leading Naval Nurse, decided to wash some clothes. There was no warning of any impending bad weather, let alone a tornado.

“Standing outside, I said ‘look at the sand getting up over there’. It was like when the helicopters landed, making all the sand go up,” said Karen.

“We thought that was all it was, and as we didn’t want our wet clothes to get dirty, we would go into a tent to shelter.

“I ran in first, into one of the shower tents at the back of the camp, and then turned to look at Anna, who was just in the entrance.

“I remember the floor coming up – it was clipped together, but it whipped up, and I put my hands up – but that’s all I can remember.”

According to Anna, as the floor came up she was knocked over, back out of the tent, and she looked up to see Karen shoot about 30ft into the air with the tent.

“I heard the most horrible scream, but I couldn’t see her face as she had her back to me,” said Anna, a trauma unit nurse in Oxford.

“She was carried about 100 metres or more, and I called people over to get her out from the collapsed tent, but in the confusion it turned out we were searching through another tent which had been blown down, and an ambulance had already been called to help Karen, who was further away.”

“I was told later that I did not land very elegantly, but it was not one of my priorities,” said Karen.

The next thing she remembers was waking in hospital, but despite her pleas to stay, her injuries were too severe to allow her to stay at the Field Hospital, so she was transferred by military ambulance on a painful journey to Kuwait, and shortly afterwards airlifted home via Cyprus – she was told she was the first non-combatant Service person sent home because of injuries.

Karen, who is still being treated for her injuries, was amused by the Dorothy nickname – and to make sure her colleagues had something to while away the hours spent in Iraq, Karen’s mother sent them out a board game – Twister.
Ironically, Karen admits to a fascination for twisters: “This one didn’t look anything like the kind of tornado you imagine in the United States,” she said.

“I was interested in things like that anyway – I just wish I could have seen it properly.”