AMC supports humanitarian mission to Argentina

  • Published
  • By Steve Berry
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) --  Members of the 375th Logistics Readiness Squadron here June 12 loaded the 26,000-pound heart of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine onto a C-17 Globemaster III bound for Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. -- and ultimately Argentina.

The MRI equipment was donated to a hospital in Salta, Argentina, by Washington University's School of Medicine in St. Louis.

After almost three years of planning, the Air Force and the Denton Amendment have helped make the movement of this large, high-tech piece of medical equipment possible. The Denton Amendment allows private organizations to use available space on U.S. military cargo planes to ship humanitarian goods.

The first half of this Denton shipment was flown from Scott AFB to Charleston AFB to Argentina in August. The remainder of the MRI scanner arrived at Scott June 12 via tractor-trailer from St. Louis.

The crated MRI core was hoisted off the tractor-trailer by crane, loaded onto a C-17 and flown to Charleston AFB. From there the equipment will be flown to Buenos Aires, Argentina, then transported 900 miles by truck to Salta, where it will be assembled with the device's other electronic parts.

The shipment remained demagnetized apart from the rest of the machine.

In Argentina, the equipment will be used for general medical use and for medical research conducted by Dr. Gabriel de Erausquin of Washington University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. MRI creates detailed images of the internal structure of the human body.

Dr. Thomas Conturo, also from Washington University School of Medicine, said the native population in Salta, and the northwest region of Argentina, will receive MRI scanner services free of charge. Researchers from Washington University will team up with a non-profit organization, called FULTRA, to operate the MRI scanner. FULTRA provides neurological and psychiatric care for Argentina's indigenous population.

"It's really an unserved population," Dr. Conturo said. "There is no MRI scanner for that part of the world essentially."

He said research will focus on psychiatry, but could also include cancer and heart disease research.

"This MRI scanner could become a focus point for bringing patients in to get health care and doing research and treating the patients," Dr. Conturo said.

He said transporting the scanner from St. Louis to South America has been a logistical challenge -- one that is not over.

"To get the machine operational; that is part of the challenge," Dr. Conturo said. "The whole thing has been a big challenge. It's been one big experiment because nobody has tried to do this before."

The MRI presented no difficulties for the Airmen who loaded it onto the C-17.

 "Just double, double, double checking stuff," said Staff Sgt. Javawn Morris, 375th LRS. "With the crane it was actually really easy. They just took the rings and hooked it up to each side and lifted it up like it was nothing."

The MRI scanner is scheduled to arrive in Argentina June 19.