Keesler medical teams provide Haitian victim care

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) --  Two 81st Medical Group medical teams from here are providing vital care to Haiti earthquake victims who are airlifted to hospitals in Florida.

Two, three-person critical care air transport teams from the 81st Medical Operations Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, are bringing aid to the earthquake survivors.

The team members includes emergency medicine physicians, critical care nurses and respiratory therapists.

Their teams have treated "all ages of victims," from children to adults, said Major Boskovich.

Most of the wounds the teams have seen are the result of crush injuries: skull and extremity fractures, head injuries, amputations and burns, he said.

"We've also encountered medical emergencies like sepsis," he said, "I had an actual case of tetanus, which is very rare in the U.S. because of our good vaccination policies."

The major said their highest tempo missions were daily to Haiti, "with as many litter patients as we could fit on the plane (20 to 30), and four to five critical patients attended by the CCATT team."

The teams in Tampa are operating out of MacDill AFB, Fla.

"We pick up the patients in Haiti and fly them back to the United States, distributing them to hospitals throughout Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa) in coordination with Florida emergency medical services," Major Boskovich said. "It's about a three-hour flight to Haiti on a C-130 (Hercules). We have been flying into Port-au-Prince airport and pick up patients from the mobile aeromedical staging facility set up just off the flightline."