East Cobb physician completes National Guard duty in Kosovo

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To his patients in and around East Cobb, he’s Dr. Brian Nadolne. But in Kosovo this spring and summer, Lt. Col. Brian Nadolne served with the 48th Brigade of the Georgia National Guard.

Dr. Nadolne was part of a U.S.-led NATO group at Camp Bondsteel, teaching fellow medical professionals.

“It was overall a good experience, and I think I represented Northside really well,” he said. “I think the mission, which is basically to maintain peace there, was a huge success.”

Dr. Nadolne joined Northside in 2016 when East Cobb Family Medicine became part of the Northside network. After serving as president of the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians, he looked for a new challenge and opportunity to serve.

“I said, ‘What else is there? What else can I do?’” He got his answer with the Georgia National Guard, where he found a leadership position that gave him the chance to represent fellow physicians.

“They needed family docs especially,” he said. “I joined and then in ’19 I was deployed to Iraq. I was in Camp Al Asad for three months and then a couple of years later, they needed me to go to Kosovo.”

While Dr. Nadolne was at Al Asad, the airbase sustained a ballistic missile strike in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike five days earlier that killed Iraq Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds force.

More than 100 troops were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries as a result.

“That was scary,” Dr. Nadolne said. “We always had our weapons with us. That was a much different deployment. We were always under threat of trauma.

“Even though it was a combat mission (to Kosovo), there was never really threat of combat.”

At Bondsteel, Dr. Nadolne taught search-and-rescue operations and the importance of speaking to patients.

“Don’t just jump to technology,” he said. “Technology’s important but I think there’s an overreliance on it.”

And he said there are lessons in return for the American medical professionals who go overseas with the military, like him.

“I think Army medical in general teaches you to think outside the box,” Dr. Nadolne said. “God forbid we have a major problem here, like a terrorist attack, you already have doctors in the Georgia National Guard that are already doing a lot of field medicine, how to deal with triaging.

“It kind of keeps you on your toes, with the importance of the true practice of medicine.”

Dr. Nadolne also served as the de facto brigade surgeon for troops in the Balkans.

“That was really nice,” he said. “Here, back at the 48th, I had been a battalion surgeon back in Cumming. Now I’m going to be the brigade surgeon out of Macon. My role’s going to change to be a little more operational.”

Outside his Guard service, Dr. Nadolne sees patients at the practice at 1121 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 100, in Marietta. He’s accepting new patients.

He thanked Dr. Amy Fallen and Rebecca Davis, CNP, for helping carry the load at home in his absence, as well as office manager Shalonda Burks and the East Cobb Family Medicine staff.

And Dr. Nadolne said Northside was supportive of his service.

“While I was gone, I nominated Steve Hudson (Northside’s director of physician and strategic development) for a Patriot Award,” Dr. Nadolne said. “I nominated him because I could not have done this without Steve Hudson. He supported me. He’s a former Marine. He supported me 100 percent, which means Northside supports me 100 percent.”

Dr. Nadolne said his work with the Guard is about more than seeing patients, but about serving Georgia.

“I feel like I represent Northside when I’m out there,” he said, “and I mean it.

“Because I treat patients like that, we’ve had a large influx of patients who’ve come because they’ve gotten to know me at the battalion level. I could not have done it without Northside and Steve Hudson.”

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