A senior RAF nurse awarded one of Britain's highest medals for nursing on the front line has said she was unprepared for the horrific nature of the injuries she treated in Afghanistan. Squadron Leader Charlotte Thompson-Edgar spoke movingly about the bravery of the 600 soldiers she brought back from the brink of death after fierce battles against the Taliban. But at a ceremony last week to mark the latest Operational Honours and Awards for Britain's Armed Forces, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar – who was awarded the Royal Red Cross 2nd Class – said no one expected such injuries, during the fighting in which 453 troops lost their lives. Sqn Ldr Charlotte 'Charlie' Thomson-Edgar (left) previously Staff Officer 1 of the Medical Emergency Response Team in Afghanistan, with a colleague . In an interview with the Mail on Sunday the 40-year-old revealed: . From 2007 to 2013, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar, from Peterborough, commanded a medical response unit that flew by helicopter to the battlefield, braving Taliban gunfire, to rescue injured soldiers. Speaking about her 'horrific' experiences in the war zone, she said: 'There was no training for the job and I'd never done any pre-hospital care. 'I was used to working in a nice emergency room in a safe environment with kit and with everyone on standby. 'Suddenly I was in a Chinook helicopter, unable to hear myself think, treating guys with horrific injuries and being shot at. I was not prepared to see these injuries but then the military was not expecting to see them either. Sqn Ldr Thomson-Edgar (left) working onboard a Chinook helicopter with a colleague on Operation Herrick: the codename under which all British operations in Afghanistan have been conducted. She said she was a 'complete mess' on returning to Britain after her first tour . 'I pulled 600 patients from the battlefield – about 80 per cent of them had limbs missing or gunshot wounds. Quite a lot died, especially those with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. 'We also saw guys were dying because they were losing too much blood.' The officer, who enlisted in the RAF after completing a nursing degree, was first exposed to the gruesome reality of the Taliban's tactics on Christmas Eve 2007. On that freezing day, her medical response team was sent on an emergency mission to rescue a young Royal Marine who – on what was supposed to be a routine desert patrol in Helmand province – had stood on an enemy landmine. The force of the explosion blew off both his legs and his right arm. When the alarm was raised, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar and her four-man team flew from Camp Bastion to where Mark Ormrod, of 40 Commando, had been horrifically wounded. Marine Mark Ormrod, 24, who had both his legs and his right arm blown off by an IED blast. Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar and her four-man team flew from Camp Bastion to help save his life . He had suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage, yet the team had no blood or plasma to give him – because at the time medical helicopters did not carry these supplies. She said: 'I was gobsmacked – we all were. We'd never seen anything like it. I mean, where do you start? 'We had a reservist doctor with us who was supposed to lead the treatment and he just froze – literally for about five minutes he couldn't move because he was overwhelmed. 'So me and a paramedic took a deep breath and got to work on Mark as the helicopter flew back to Camp Bastion. 'We needed to get a fluid line into Mark but the veins in his remaining arm were flat. 'Our only option was to perform an intraosseous infusion, which means drilling through a patient's bone to deliver fluids. Fourteen of the service men and women recognised for gallantry and meritorious service in the Operational Awards ceremony at Lancaster House, London. Sqn Ldr Charlotte Joanne Thompson-Edgar is fourth from left . 'Our usual landmarks are through the arms and legs but, because of Mark's injuries, the only option was to go through a part of his pelvis called the iliac crest. 'It is a nerve-racking procedure because you've got a lot of vital organs in that area. 'So that is what me and the paramedic Corporal Keith Mills did. He went in one side and I tried the other. Eventually we got it right.' However, leading so many missions commanding the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) soon took its toll. Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar said: 'Every time the red phone rang to signal another MERT mission I would think, 'Is today going to be the day?' 'And when I came back to Britain after that first tour, I'll be honest, I was a complete mess. 'So I said right, we've got to prepare our people better because I hadn't been prepared and didn't want somebody else to go through it.' British soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) walk to a Chinook helicopter in Helmand province in May 2008. From working in a 'nice emergency room' Sqn Ldr Thomson-Edgar suddenly found herself in a Chinook 'unable to hear [myself] think' Once home, she played a key role in setting up a MERT training programme, which used amputees in Britain to act as injured soldiers to help medics train before they were deployed to Afghanistan. As a result of recommendations from senior medical staff, blood and plasma started to be carried aboard MERT helicopters in 2008. But as the campaign continued, the Taliban changed their tactics – leading to injuries becoming even more horrific and the experiences of UK medics more traumatic. She said: 'Originally they just wanted to hurt as many soldiers as possible in order to dent morale and get the public up in arms. 'Then they decided that if they maimed somebody really, really badly that's going to affect people more and affect the minds of the soldiers on the ground. 'So the blasts got bigger and the amputations started getting higher up the soldiers' legs. This made our jobs a lot harder, especially when someone was bleeding from the groin because it is very difficult to stop that sort of bleeding. Taliban fighters  in the main bazaar of Kandahar in November 2001. IED blasts got bigger as the group moved away from seeking to hurt groups of soldiers towards maiming individuals as much as possible . 'It was complicated, and I started to see my guys in the MERT teams burnout and leave. 'At one point both the MERT teams were working 24 hours a day for ten days without a break. As I was the RAF's most senior nurse I had to take accountability, I had to make sure my guys were okay.' Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar – whose mother Diane was also a nurse – is married to Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Iain Edgar, of the Royal Navy. She currently serves as a military nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and is also about to start a PhD in nursing studies. She added: 'The past seven years have been very difficult and I know my family have been concerned. 'I got through it for a reason – because of the guys on the ground, the soldiers, who deserved the best. 'Their bravery was my reason for going back to the war zone so many times.'
Squadron Leader Charlotte Thompson-Edgar spoke of soldiers' bravery .
Senior RAF nurse said no one expected such traumatic injuries .
Taliban tactics evolved to try and maim individuals as much as possible .
She was unprepared and fellow medics burned out doing 24-hour shifts .
For two years, British helicopters flew without blood or plasma on board to give to wounded soldiers - leading to deaths from losing blood .
Forty-year-old from Peterborough awarded the Royal Red Cross 2nd at the latest Operational Honours and Awards for Britain's Armed Forces .
No one anticipated the scale and severity of casualties the Taliban could inflict; .
For two years, British helicopters flew without any blood or plasma on board to give to wounded soldiers – a policy that cost lives; .
Overworked medics suffered 'burnout' and quit their jobs after working 24-hour shifts for ten days without any rest.
An earlier version of this article said Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar had been critical of military leaders over a lack of preparations for the conflict. We have been asked to point out that she made no such criticisms of the leadership.
A senior RAF nurse awarded one of Britain's highest medals for nursing on the front line has said she was unprepared for the horrific nature of the injuries she treated in Afghanistan. Squadron Leader Charlotte Thompson-Edgar spoke movingly about the bravery of the 600 soldiers she brought back from the brink of death after fierce battles against the Taliban. But at a ceremony last week to mark the latest Operational Honours and Awards for Britain's Armed Forces, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar – who was awarded the Royal Red Cross 2nd Class – said no one expected such injuries, during the fighting in which 453 troops lost their lives. Sqn Ldr Charlotte 'Charlie' Thomson-Edgar (left) previously Staff Officer 1 of the Medical Emergency Response Team in Afghanistan, with a colleague . In an interview with the Mail on Sunday the 40-year-old revealed: . From 2007 to 2013, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar, from Peterborough, commanded a medical response unit that flew by helicopter to the battlefield, braving Taliban gunfire, to rescue injured soldiers. Speaking about her 'horrific' experiences in the war zone, she said: 'There was no training for the job and I'd never done any pre-hospital care. 'I was used to working in a nice emergency room in a safe environment with kit and with everyone on standby. 'Suddenly I was in a Chinook helicopter, unable to hear myself think, treating guys with horrific injuries and being shot at. I was not prepared to see these injuries but then the military was not expecting to see them either. Sqn Ldr Thomson-Edgar (left) working onboard a Chinook helicopter with a colleague on Operation Herrick: the codename under which all British operations in Afghanistan have been conducted. She said she was a 'complete mess' on returning to Britain after her first tour . 'I pulled 600 patients from the battlefield – about 80 per cent of them had limbs missing or gunshot wounds. Quite a lot died, especially those with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. 'We also saw guys were dying because they were losing too much blood.' The officer, who enlisted in the RAF after completing a nursing degree, was first exposed to the gruesome reality of the Taliban's tactics on Christmas Eve 2007. On that freezing day, her medical response team was sent on an emergency mission to rescue a young Royal Marine who – on what was supposed to be a routine desert patrol in Helmand province – had stood on an enemy landmine. The force of the explosion blew off both his legs and his right arm. When the alarm was raised, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar and her four-man team flew from Camp Bastion to where Mark Ormrod, of 40 Commando, had been horrifically wounded. Marine Mark Ormrod, 24, who had both his legs and his right arm blown off by an IED blast. Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar and her four-man team flew from Camp Bastion to help save his life . He had suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage, yet the team had no blood or plasma to give him – because at the time medical helicopters did not carry these supplies. She said: 'I was gobsmacked – we all were. We'd never seen anything like it. I mean, where do you start? 'We had a reservist doctor with us who was supposed to lead the treatment and he just froze – literally for about five minutes he couldn't move because he was overwhelmed. 'So me and a paramedic took a deep breath and got to work on Mark as the helicopter flew back to Camp Bastion. 'We needed to get a fluid line into Mark but the veins in his remaining arm were flat. 'Our only option was to perform an intraosseous infusion, which means drilling through a patient's bone to deliver fluids. Fourteen of the service men and women recognised for gallantry and meritorious service in the Operational Awards ceremony at Lancaster House, London. Sqn Ldr Charlotte Joanne Thompson-Edgar is fourth from left . 'Our usual landmarks are through the arms and legs but, because of Mark's injuries, the only option was to go through a part of his pelvis called the iliac crest. 'It is a nerve-racking procedure because you've got a lot of vital organs in that area. 'So that is what me and the paramedic Corporal Keith Mills did. He went in one side and I tried the other. Eventually we got it right.' However, leading so many missions commanding the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) soon took its toll. Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar said: 'Every time the red phone rang to signal another MERT mission I would think, 'Is today going to be the day?' 'And when I came back to Britain after that first tour, I'll be honest, I was a complete mess. 'So I said right, we've got to prepare our people better because I hadn't been prepared and didn't want somebody else to go through it.' British soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) walk to a Chinook helicopter in Helmand province in May 2008. From working in a 'nice emergency room' Sqn Ldr Thomson-Edgar suddenly found herself in a Chinook 'unable to hear [myself] think' Once home, she played a key role in setting up a MERT training programme, which used amputees in Britain to act as injured soldiers to help medics train before they were deployed to Afghanistan. As a result of recommendations from senior medical staff, blood and plasma started to be carried aboard MERT helicopters in 2008. But as the campaign continued, the Taliban changed their tactics – leading to injuries becoming even more horrific and the experiences of UK medics more traumatic. She said: 'Originally they just wanted to hurt as many soldiers as possible in order to dent morale and get the public up in arms. 'Then they decided that if they maimed somebody really, really badly that's going to affect people more and affect the minds of the soldiers on the ground. 'So the blasts got bigger and the amputations started getting higher up the soldiers' legs. This made our jobs a lot harder, especially when someone was bleeding from the groin because it is very difficult to stop that sort of bleeding. Taliban fighters  in the main bazaar of Kandahar in November 2001. IED blasts got bigger as the group moved away from seeking to hurt groups of soldiers towards maiming individuals as much as possible . 'It was complicated, and I started to see my guys in the MERT teams burnout and leave. 'At one point both the MERT teams were working 24 hours a day for ten days without a break. As I was the RAF's most senior nurse I had to take accountability, I had to make sure my guys were okay.' Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar – whose mother Diane was also a nurse – is married to Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Iain Edgar, of the Royal Navy. She currently serves as a military nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and is also about to start a PhD in nursing studies. She added: 'The past seven years have been very difficult and I know my family have been concerned. 'I got through it for a reason – because of the guys on the ground, the soldiers, who deserved the best. 'Their bravery was my reason for going back to the war zone so many times.'
A senior RAF nurse awarded one of Britain's said she was unprepared for the horrific nature Squadron Leader Charlotte Thompson-Edgar spoke ceremony last week to mark the latest Operational Honours and Awards for Britain's Armed Forces, Sqn Ldr Thompson-Edgar – who was awarded the Royal Red Cross 2nd Class – said no one expected Thompson-Edgar, from Peterborough, commanded a haemorrhage, yet the team had no blood or plasma to give him – because at the time medical the campaign continued, the Taliban changed their tactics – leading to injuries becoming even more and affect the minds of the soldiers on the individuals as much as possible . 'It was ten days without a break. As I was the RAF's most 'The past seven years have been very difficult