Mobile aeromedical staging facility cares for war's wounded

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Fran Frederick
  • 387th Air Expeditionary Group
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (AFPN) --  Providing medical care to injured soldiers and airmen is the main job for 26 active duty and Reserve airmen of the 387th Air Expeditionary Group, deployed to a location in Southwest Asia.

Comprising the Expeditionary Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility staff, the team members are a model of the "total force" concept, said Capt. Karen Rader, the EMASF commander.

Rader said the deployed medical team's "multi functional professionals" were drawn from units at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.; Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; Travis AFB, Calif.; and Andrews AFB, Md.

"Our mission is to support air evacuation from forward deployed austere locations and coordinate, manage and transport wounded personnel to points of definitive care," Rader said. Two critical care air transport teams are assigned to the EMASF along with one aircrew. Each CCATT includes a physician, a critical care nurse and a respiratory technician, she said.

The EMASF facility, located within the 387th AEG's installation, has a 10-bed holding capacity, and operates around the clock, 7 days a week, Rader said.

Rader, a Caribou, Maine, native, is a flight nurse assigned to the 375th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Scott. "I've been incredibly blessed to be the commander of this unit and that is directly reflected through the extreme dedication and professionalism of the total team that stands beside me," she said.

Patients come to EMASF via the expeditionary medical service, Rader said. Once a primary physician identifies that a patient needs to be evacuated, the patients are placed in one of three categories: routine, priority or urgent, she said.

"Those with non-life threatening injuries are considered routine and, although they require evacuation, the time frame is more flexible," Rader said. "Those deemed priority require definitive treatment within 24 hours and evacuation must be expedited.

"The urgent category is reserved for those patients with loss of life, limb or eyesight," she said. "Time is a critical factor in their evacuation."

To coordinate patient care and airlift, Rader said EMASF medical experts remain in close contact with the joint patient movement requirement center and aeromedical evacuation control team, both located at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.

Since arriving in theater, Captain Rader said the EMASF staff has attended to 35 routine, six priority and two urgent patients. All are now doing well, she said.