Building A Flying Hospital

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Shawn Rhodes
  • 927th Air Refueling Wing
MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. --  It's parents' and Soldiers' worse nightmare: during a foot patrol in Afghanistan an improvised-explosive device or a sniper's round finds its mark on an American servicemember. After initial triage in the field and transportation to an aid center, the troop is sent off the front line to receive urgent care at a modern hospital. Whether the wounded are on their way to a burn clinic or to have a limb re-attached, the fastest way to get from the war zone to the home-front is with an aeromedical evacuation team. These are the teams saving lives by running 'hospitals in the sky.'

With new casualties coming in from combat theaters and disasters around the world, there is always a need for highly-trained doctors, nurses and medics to care for them. While the vast majority of these medical professionals work in state-of-the-art hospitals or in a tent within earshot of incoming rounds, there are a select few who choose to be the conduit - the link - the between front-line care and rear-echelon recovery.

Making these 'sky-medics' requires 29 days of specialized training and annual certifications aboard a flying hospital. The training scenarios are sometimes little more than a few stretchers loaded onto a tanker aircraft that pale in comparison to the 50-75 bed scenario they are likely to encounter during a real-world operation. However, the small training space allows each of them to receive personal instruction from those who have done the job themselves - and saved lives.

"When you're caring for a Soldier who has just lost a limb, you have to be on top of your game," said Senior Airman David Brooks, a flight medic with the 45th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. The Nashville, Tenn. native knows first-hand the demands of caring for America's wounded heroes - the flight medic recently returned from a four-month deployment to Afghanistan. There, he and his teammates were challenged daily with making sure the troops they cared for in the sky received the best care possible. He and 11 other flight medics and nurses recently participated in one of their annual in-flight training requirements over the United States to ensure they could keep up with the fast-paced tempo and make the split-second decisions that could mean the difference between life and death for other servicemembers.

"During this mission we are testing each of these Airmen on 21 separate items to ensure we give our wounded troops the best care that we can," said Maj. Barry Van Sickle, the flight commander for professional development and medical crew director with the 45th AES. "We'll take these Airmen through different emergency scenarios so they can practice what they've learned. From the time they get on the aircraft, its wheels-up to wheels-down training for them. It doesn't stop for four days."

The training they receive on the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft will mimic a real-world scenario as much as possible. Scenarios start for each medic when they receive the paperwork that accompanies each patient. This paperwork is vital because it contains needed information such as known allergies, morphine doses administered and whether or not a tourniquet was applied to the patient. If the medics don't have a clear treatment history on each patient they could inadvertently cause more harm while the servicemember is transported. The paperwork also provides a record for the doctors who will guide the patient to recovery in the United States. Once everything is signed for, the troop receives an initial assessment to see whether any immediate care is needed.

"In a real-world scenario, we could take on anywhere from 50-75 patients, all with different statuses. We need to know pretty quickly what each patient needs," said 2nd Lt. Alex Mendoza.

Hailing from Puerto Rico, Lieutenant Mendoza is a traditional reservist with the 45th AES. He conducted his first orientation with the unit during the recent training mission to gain an overview of what these medics do. There is no telling when the call might come for Lieutenant Mendoza and his teammates to put their skills to use. It's vital they are not only competent medics but can also operate in the less-than ideal environment of a decades-old airplane.

"This type of training gets everyone comfortable in the airplane," said Airman Brooks. "They need to put their medical knowledge and the ability to work in the airplane together in order to do the job."

Like many medical professionals, some sky-medics are a little intimidated by seemingly endless rules and procedures in place to ensure patients receive top-notch care. Each Airman carries a book full of checklists they must learn and abode by when performing their medical duties.

When Lieutenant Mendoza is not serving as a flight nurse for the 45th AES, he works as a nurse in a local hospital; that means he sees a lot of paperwork on both on the civilian and military sides of the medical profession. He said he understands why there are so many procedures and rules he must learn during his 29 days of initial training and subsequent training flights. The procedures are in place to make sure he and his team provides the best quality of care possible to the patients, he added.

"I do the same thing in my civilian job, but there's a big difference," Lieutenant Mendoza said. "These military patients are making huge sacrifices. It's an honor to make sure they are getting the right treatment and are getting home safe."