Keesler medical teams aid Haiti relief efforts

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) --  Airmen on 81st Medical Group critical care air transport teams here completed eight medical missions to provide care to victims of the Haiti earthquake who were airlifted from Haiti to hospitals in Florida, as of Feb. 7.

Emergency medicine physician Maj. (Dr.) Stephen Boskovich of the 81st Medical Operations Squadron said his team, including a critical care nurse and a respiratory therapist, completed three missions.

The second Keesler AFB CCATT team, also composed of an emergency medicine physician, a critical care nurse and respiratory therapist, completed five missions.

"We've seen the same kinds of patients from a few months old to adults, with traumatic injuries and medical emergencies," Major Boskovich said. "My most recent patients included a 34-year-old man with a left leg amputation stemming from a crush injury that later developed tetanus, and a 13-year-old girl with sepsis and multiple intra-abdominal abscesses from a ruptured appendicitis."

Major Boskovich went on to say that missions are flying daily to and from Haiti, and that their teams fly every three days.

"We've distributed earthquake patients to hospitals as far north as Atlanta, and occasional flights go to a burn center in North Carolina and even one to Walter Reed in D.C., for an active-duty soldier who had symptoms of multiple sclerosis."