If the problems were bad enough — and they often are, because of the nature of this hospital — they can be through emergency and into a full-bore operating room in eight minutes.

AFTH may see 1,500 trauma patients in three months, he added. In U.S. hospitals, 1,500 trauma patients in a year would be a big load.

The AFTH is a sophisticated trauma center, but is really meant to treat trauma, rather than perform long-term care or rehabilitation. Patients are stabilized, and then shipped either to Germany or to the United States

"All the time, you see people coming in here who shouldn't survive, but they do. You see this team get this guy, and he should die, but now he's going to make it."

He said, "Listen: There's lots of miracles here. They happen all the time."