Medics transform ‘Toy Land’ into medical treatment facility

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Lee Roberts
  • Air Force Print News
ELLINGTON FIELD, Texas --  The Texas Air National Guard stood up Task Force Compassion here to provide Hurricane Rita evacuees medical support and to evacuate non-critical patients from overburdened local hospitals.

Task force Airmen and Soldiers began setting up a 10-bed medical treatment facility overnight in Ellington’s abandoned base exchange and opened for business Sept. 26.

The treatment facility has 47 medics from the 147th Medical Group here, the 149th MG at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, the 136th MG at Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and the Army National Guard Support Medical Battalion in San Antonio.

“If you go in there now, you’ll be surprised because there is still a sign on the wall advertising Toy Land. Next to it is a sign that says ‘Intensive Care Unit,’” said Maj. (Dr.) Richard Bradley, assigned to Ellington.

“It’s a playful anecdote given our medical teams aren’t playing around,” he said. “They are working very hard around the clock to transform Toy Land into an efficient treatment facility.”

Ensuring the facility is clean and meets medical hygiene standards is a monumental task by itself, the major said. Nonetheless, medical personnel are installing beds and basic essentials. And they are setting up for clinical operations such as X-ray, laboratory and transport services.

Major Bradley stressed that medical missions are being accomplished as quickly as possible in preparation for the expected arrival of patients. But with such an experienced team, he doesn’t expect any major delays in standing up operations.

Senior Airman Kelly Smith, a 149th MG medical technician, arrived late Sept. 26. Having just worked at a field hospital in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, she knows how vital this hospital is in a pinch.

“I know from personal experience that our field hospital allows us to help the people who need it most,” Airman Smith said. “I know when I’m able to do something for somebody that’s making their life a little bit better, it’s satisfying.”

More medical personnel will begin arriving soon to support the task force. They will come from medical groups in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

According to Lt. Col. Danny Davis, commander of Task Force Compassion, the medical contingent has been busy doing other things.

Medics set up an expeditionary support team, aeromedical staging facility and an aeromedical evacuation liaison team to help handle patients. The colonel said military and civilian authorities are routing patients to other medical facilities throughout the region.

The colonel said medics are also accepting patients from the affected areas of the Texas-Louisiana border if beds are unavailable in Houston-area hospitals.