Airmen coordinate smooth transition of wounded to higher medical care

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stacia Zachary
  • U.S. Air Forces Central combat camera team
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFNS) --  An Airman with the aeromedical evacuation liaison team looks and shields his eyes as a helicopter touches down just outside of the hospital at Camp Bastion. A litter team rushes forward. A Marine's life is saved.

All in a day's work for the aeromedical evacuation liaison team.

Getting wounded warriors necessary medical care is only the start of a complex plan. It's AELT Airmen who ensure injured troops get from the battlefield to the hospital where they are stabilized, treated or, if necessary, transported to more specialized care.

The Camp Bastion AELT is one of only two teams in the area. The Airmen on the team are the link connecting rescue teams and hospitals.

The AELT are primarily responsible for providing fixed-wing aeromedical evacuation for NATO forces. The team also helps anyone who may need to be seen by a specialist not stationed at Camp Bastion.

"It's really refreshing to work with a group that hasn't drawn lines in the sand and only help select people," said Capt. Jac Solghan, flight clinical coordinator. "When the chips are down, we just throw all our cards in the pot and just work together to get the patient the care he or she needs."

A secondary mission for AELT is to provide emergency medical assistance to local nationals and Afghan National Security Forces.

"When a patient needs our help, there is no nationality, no ownership -- the person becomes only a person who is in need of our aid." Captain Solghan said.

Theater hospitals are rated by the level of care they can provide. Role 1 is assigned to areas providing basic or initial care; Role 2 are facilities with some surgical capabilities; Role 3 facilities can support trauma care, surgical procedures and burn care; and Role 4 is advanced medical center care. Camp Bastion is a Role 3 facility.

Patients who, including those with traumatic amputations or other combat injuries, need more specialized treatment and will need to get to a Role 4 hospital. rely on the AELT to coordinate the patient's transfer with a medical aircrew. Once the patient is picked up and en route to a higher level of medical care, the AELT advises the staff awaiting the patient's arrival.

"The transition of care is what we're responsible for," said Capt. Andy Stewart, Camp Bastion Role 3 Hospital AELT operations officer. "We make sure the doctors are taking into account what the patient will go through while in the air."

"I have experience treating patients in the air so I know what will cause a patient great discomfort due to the altitude and how to combat that," Captain Solghan added. "Flight medicine is different so I advise doctors of all the possibilities a patient may encounter while in flight. When they're here, patients are safe and it's my job to make sure that they get to the next stop just as safe."

The medical staff here benefit from techniques perfected in Iraq. They're applying those lessons learned to this theater of operations while also working out other kinks in the system.

"(Our goal is to) lock it down now while the numbers are relatively low and perfect the techniques and procedures we need to save as many lives as we can," Captain Solghan said.

Recently, a Marine on a foot patrol in the Helmand province was seriously injured from the blast of an improvised explosive device. He's alive today because of combat search and rescue professionals and the AELT.

"If our CSAR guys hadn't gotten to the Marine when they did and start medical care on him, he wouldn't have survived -- it's that simple," Captain Solghan said. "Because we knew the severity of the situation, the doctors and nurses worked rapidly to stabilize him while the AELT worked to get him immediate airlift to Germany. Every one lined up to get this Marine care he needed."

To date, the team has coordinated 125 aeromedical evacuations. Going through the charts, AELT members vividly recall the details of patients who have come through their hospital. Even though the block on type of injury is a notation of three or four words, the captains have a unique bond to each one.

"We begin to feel an emotional attachment with the patients," Captain Stewart said. "Months later, even years, we will still be able to connect a name on paper to a person we cared for."