Team provides airborne intensive care Published Jan. 17, 2003 By Army Cpl. Keith A. Kluwe 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- Moving critically injured and sick troops from the front lines to larger and better-equipped military medical facilities is the job of the Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Team based at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.The team works with Air Force aerial medical evacuation specialists to provide specialized care during medical evacuation flights."Basically, what we are doing is putting an (intensive care unit) in the sky," said Maj. (Dr.) Daniel T. Smith from the 438th Expeditionary Air Medical Evacuation Squadron at Kandahar. "We can put a chest tube in. We can put a central line in ... anything we could do in the (emergency room) or the ICU."The CCAT team is made up of a physician, a critical care nurse and a cardio-pulmonary technician. The physician, who usually has a background in critical care such as emergency medicine or general surgery, is the team leader but everyone on the team plays a vital role in saving lives."We all have to know the equipment, but mostly that is my job," said Capt. Kristen McCabe, a critical care nurse. "I have to react to what our monitors tell us, administer medications and document everything we do. We're limited to the number of patients we can treat, but we offer a higher level of care."All team members attend a CCAT team training course at Brooks City-Base, Texas."Everybody who is on a CCAT team has to go through that training," Smith said. "All the equipment we use we trained with (at Brooks.) They have air frames for us to train in, moving patients in and out and preparing them for flight. We saw it all before we came here."Since arriving in Afghanistan, the team has helped transport a U.S. soldier with a head wound and another soldier with a pulmonary embolism or blood clot in his lung. It is also tasked with the care and transport of local-national patients in need of high-level care. Local patients have included victims of landmines, unexploded ordnance and gunshot wounds, and some critically injured stabbing victims.One such patient was "Patient 53," transported Jan. 12. Patient 53 was involved in a fight with a neighbor when he was stabbed several times. He had wounds to his head, neck and chest."The chest wound (was) a potentially life-threatening injury," said Smith, who is a graduate of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. "He received a chest tube in the field which relieved the pressure on his lung and allowed him to breathe with that lung again."Smith said Patient 53's head injury required a trip to Bagram Air Base's hospital for a CT scan to check for bleeding inside the skull or damage to his brain.Because of his critical injuries, the CCAT team went along in case anything went wrong during the flight. Patient 53 remained stable through the whole flight.Providing medical care for the Afghans is an important part of the coalition mission here, said Smith."It helps us build a relationship with the people of the country and lets them know that the United States is here for them," he said. "At the hospital in Bagram, I didn't see a single American in ICU."Medical evacuation airmen care for all noncritical patients and ensure the aircraft is properly set up and equipped for their own patients and the team. The airmen are experts on the interaction of patients, medical teams and aircrew members."We'll have everything already all set up on the aircraft for the CCAT team when they arrive from the hospital with their patient," said Senior Master Sgt. Brian Kearney, an air medical evacuation specialist assigned to the 438th Expeditionary Air Medical Evacuation Squadron at Kandahar. "They can just focus on their one patient while we take care of the rest."A three-person CCAT team is only capable of caring for three critical patients at a time.The CCAT and air medivac teams help relieve the burden placed on forward-deployed medics allowing them to concentrate on incoming casualties.