Iraqi doctors study AF aeromedical evacuation program

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Don Branum
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) --  Two doctors from Iraq's Ministry of Defense visited the Air Force Theater Hospital and Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility here Nov. 5-8 to study Air Force aeromedical evacuation procedures.

The visit will help the doctors, Maj. (Dr.) Abdul-Razaq and Capt. (Dr.) Mohammed, establish an aeromedical evacuation service for the Iraqi air force.

Col. (Dr.) Paul Young, the surgeon general and director of Iraqi Air Forces Aeromedical Services Training for the Coalition Air Forces Training Team, and Maj. William Fecke, the CAFTT Surgeon General Office chief administrator, joined Doctors Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed on their visit here to help the Iraqi doctors create a program.

"This is crucial to the viability of the Iraqi air force," said Doctor Young, who is deployed from the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Surgeon General office at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "We're here in an advisory role to help the Iraqi air force create an aeromedical evacuation program that they're comfortable with and one that works for them."

CAFTT's Surgeon General office, based in Baghdad's International Zone, worked with 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing leadership here to make the trip a reality. During their visit, Doctors Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed attended briefings on aeromedical evacuation roles and responsibilities, the process of transferring a patient into and out of a CASF, and methods that the Air Force uses to track its patients during flights.

"These doctors will be the ones who restart aeromedical evacuation services for the Iraqi air force," Doctor Young said. "They're going to begin training Iraqi medics in a week and a half at New al-Muthana AB, (Iraq), and they're going to use what they learn here to establish their course."

One major challenge that Iraqi doctors face is manpower-based. The Iraqi air force has 12 doctors for a force of 2,500 airmen, Doctor Young said. The situation is even more critical for the Iraqi army, which has approximately 150 doctors for a force of 250,000 soldiers.

Complicating matters further is the fact that a doctor may face punishment if a patient becomes more ill or dies during transit, even if the doctor did everything in his power to save the patient's life, Doctor Young said.

"Usually, it's something like a monetary fine -- but in the days of Saddam Hussein's regime, if a general died, a lot of times that general's doctor would simply disappear, never to be heard from again," Doctor Young said. "So the Iraqi doctors have a 'fear factor' that keeps them from doing what they need to do to help their patients for fear of repercussions from their leadership. We have to help advise the Iraqi leadership to change that culture."

Establishing consistent procedures for aeromedical evacuation may help Doctors Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed in their quest to change their leadership's culture, Doctor Young said. Both Iraqi doctors asked about patient accountability almost as soon as the briefings began.

"We want to know how to track patients from one medical facility to another," said Doctor Mohammed, who has served with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense since 2004. "We want to make sure we're taking care of the patients all the way through."

After a day of briefings, Doctors Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed joined Airmen from the CASF here and an 332nd Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight aircrew to see a mission for themselves. The 332nd EAEF, part of the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron, flies aeromedical evacuation missions throughout Iraq. Capt. Rebecca Abt, a flight nurse with the 332nd EAEF, was this mission's medical crew director.

"I'm glad I got to be a part of this mission," said Captain Abt, a native of Bangor, Pa., who is deployed from the 514th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. "I got to talk to the Iraqi doctors a little bit, and they attended the crew briefing with us. They were very attentive and seemed to want to learn."

Maj. Bonnie Bosler, a flight nurse with the 332nd EAEF and the mission director, also came away impressed.

"I spoke with them for about an hour and a half during one of the briefings. They asked all the right questions," said Major Bosler, who is also deployed from the 514th AMW. "They definitely have what it takes to make the Iraqi aeromedical evacuation service work."

The mission departed Joint Base Balad early in the afternoon of Nov. 7 with two litter-bound patients and a third ambulatory patient. The Wyoming Air National Guard C-130 Hercules picked up patients at Al-Asad AB, Mosul, and Ali Base and transferred some of them to the care of the 386th Expeditionary Medical Group.

Throughout each leg of the mission, Doctors Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed studied Air Force instructions on aeromedical evacuation and familiarized themselves with the equipment Airmen use to take care of patients. The C-130 returned to Joint Base Balad shortly after midnight Nov. 8 with the remaining patients, who filed onto a bus bound for the CASF.

"The mission is what we call a 'milk run,'" Captain Abt said. "We pick up patients from different bases in Iraq and take them back to the CASF at Balad. From there, we'll either load them up in a C-17 (Globemaster III) bound for Landstuhl, Germany, or they'll recover and go back to their deployed base. It's not very often that we drop off patients anywhere else."

Mohammed thanked coalition air forces for putting the trip together.

"I want to say thank you to Colonel Young for helping us learn how to establish an aeromedical evacuation service," Doctor Mohammed said. "It will be very important to the new Iraqi air force."


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