Rescue mission saves another Alaskan child

  • Published
  • By Dewey Mitchell
  • 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) --  For the second time in less than six months, a child in Alaska was rescued from near death by a team of Air Force medics at Wilford Hall Medical Center here who stay on alert for their unique lifesaving mission.

The latest mission was completed Aug. 14, covering more than 8,000 miles and 28 hours, traveling to Anchorage, Alaska, to save a 20-month-old boy.

The boy, Michael Hill, was suffering a severe case of pneumonia and was getting progressively worse at a local hospital when the team was contacted for assistance, said Maj. (Dr.) John Lin, a pediatric critical care physician.

“It was a team effort by doctors, nurses, technicians, flight crews and the medical staff at the hospital,” Dr. Lin said. “The child is now critically ill, but stable.”

The critical-care air transport team included neonatal and pediatric critical care physicians, pediatric surgeons, critical care nurses and respiratory therapists.

The 14-person team left here Aug. 13 with their battery-operated portable extra corporeal membrane oxygenator equipment. The oxygenator is a heart-lung bypass device which circulates and oxygenates the blood, giving diseased or poisoned lungs a chance to heal.

The team put the baby on ECMO at the Anchorage hospital, proceeded by ambulance to a C-17 Globemaster III at nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base, then flew back here with the patient and his mother, Dora Hill.

Although Michael is in critical, but stable condition, and on ECMO at Wilford Hall, Dr. Lin gives him about a 50-percent chance of survival compared to about 10 percent before he was placed on the lifesaving device. He said he expects Michael to stay on the equipment for two to three weeks, then remain at Wilford Hall another week or two post-ECMO treatment before he goes home.

Many hospitals worldwide now have ECMO, but no other hospital has the long-distance air transportable capability which the Air Force requires to help save infants and children of military families who may be stationed in remote or locations without access to the equipment. Wilford Hall medics place six to 12 patients on ECMO each year, and two to four require long-distance transport, often from locations such as Alaska and Hawaii.

A 10-month old Alaskan girl who was rescued by the team on April 28 had returned to Alaska on Aug. 13 after being hospitalized for more than three months. Carle David had a severe case of viral pneumonia called adenovirus.

“This young lady was able to defy the odds by surviving this illness,” said Maj. (Dr.) Michael Meyer, the girl’s physician. “She is unique because she spent a total of 36 days on ECMO, and there have been no previous survivors of adenovirus who had been on (it) more than 21 days.”

Although she is still hospitalized in Alaska, doctors are hopeful she may slowly recover the use of her lungs. They said it is too early to determine whether she will have neurological or developmental problems from the illness.

“In order for us to help a civilian child, the child’s congressman/senator must request a humanitarian mission through the secretary of defense health affairs section, which then takes the request to the secretary of the Air Force, then the Air Force surgeon general, then we get the call,” Dr. Meyer said.

With a survival rate of its patients at about 75 percent, reminders of the many success stories hang on the wall outside the Wilford Hall’s neonatal intensive care unit, where plaques from thankful parents show pictures of healthy survivors, thanks to the work of this team.