Kadena medics provide lifeline in air

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Val Gempis
  • Air Force Print News
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Capt. Donna Hornberger held a satellite phone as her aircraft headed for an unknown airport in the middle of the night during a medical evacuation mission from Saipan. Their mission, she said, was to help a severely injured young child who was run over by a truck. The child was in critical condition and needed neurosurgery.

“Because of limited communication resources at the airport, we used a satellite phone to coordinate important information (among) us, Saipan and Kadena Air Base,” said Captain Hornberger, a flight nurse with the 18th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron here. “We let them know what equipment we have, and we ask if an ambulance is waiting when we get to the airport.”

The improvised communication worked well and the aeromedical evacuation crew evacuated the patient aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker. Within hours, the crew safely handed the child to an ambulance crew from a hospital at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii

Although using a satellite phone during an aeromedical flight is unusual, improvisation like this demonstrates good operational assessment skills and the flexibility 18th AES medics possess.

“You have to think on your feet here,” Captain Hornberger said. “Unlike in a hospital where you have support teams helping you, when we fly, we’re pretty much on our own.”

The mission of the squadron is to provide a flexible, seamless and responsive aeromedical evacuation system capable of prompt and appropriate patient movement. Their area of responsibility stretches from the North Pole to the South Pole, and the East Coast of Madagascar to the U.S. West Coast.

The Airmen said their presence helps ease the minds of about 540,000 U.S. Pacific Command people potentially needing higher level of medical care.

Specially trained aeromedical evacuation technicians and flight nurses make up a team. The number of people on a team depends on the mission requirements.

Once in the air, the group monitors and administers required medications to patients. But according to the Airmen, their job is not as easy as it sounds.

Capt. Jennifer Prosser, also a flight nurse, said working in a noisy, vibrating and sometimes hot aircraft presents unique challenges.

The Airmen have to know the stresses of flight and their effect on the medics and the patients, Captain Prosser said. Sometimes something as simple as inserting an IV needle can prove difficult. Also, understanding the equipment inside the aircraft is critical. Flight nurses and technicians here are especially careful when working with electrical equipment, the captain said.

“We know how to be (nurses), but in order to be a good flight nurse you have to tie your aircraft and medical knowledge together so you can safely help patients in the air,” said Capt. Andrea Whitney, also an 18th AES flight nurse.

And to effectively combine their skills, the squadron’s Airmen said constant and rigorous training is key.

“We’re always getting tested here,” said Staff Sgt. Joe Lueders, a technician.

The Airmen are universally qualified to fly on various aircraft, he said, but to maintain currencies on these planes, they have to pass evaluations and no-notice checks regularly. The goal of these evaluations is patient safety, Sergeant Lueders said.

“No flights ever get wasted here,” he said. “We’re either working or training.”

In 2004, the unit launched more than 250 aeromedical evacuation missions aboard KC-135 aircraft from the 909th Air Refueling Squadron. They moved almost 500 patients across the Pacific Region and to the U.S. About 90 percent of those people were urgent or priority moves.

They were the first aeromedical evacuation unit in the Air Force that evacuated an infant in a neonatal transportation system aboard a KC-135. They also transported the first severe acute respiratory patient from Vietnam to Taiwan in 2004.