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Not a moment too soon: Medics work together to save lives

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mareshah Haynes
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq --  An hour can be the difference between life and death.

U.S. Army medical evacuation crews, such the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment deployed to Balad Air Base, ensure all patients, friend or foe, who are wounded in Iraq are transported to the nearest hospital able to provide the next echelon of care well within one hour of being injured.

During that first hour, the "Golden Hour," the majority of seriously injured patients can be saved if they receive definitive treatment at facilities like the Air Force Theater Hospital here.

"We [medevac crews] can get to the patient quickly and get them to the treatment facility as quickly as possible as opposed to some type of ground asset. We can usually get to a patient and back within in half an hour from our farthest point from here at Balad," said Army Chief Warrant Officer Christopher Trammell, a pilot in command and tactical operations officer.

The crews must be ready to fly into action at a moment's notice, anytime day or night. When the call goes out, "Medevac, medevac, medevac," the clock starts. Soldiers engaged in various activities around the compound drop what they are doing mid-action to run to their assigned helicopters as if a life depended on it -- it's quite possible that one does.

"The calls come through our medical readiness officer in Tikrit," said Chief Warrant Officer Trammell, who is deployed with the 101st Aviation Regiment from Fort Campbell, Ky. "They receive the information from the local forward operating bases and they determine which medevac [unit in] Iraq will get the mission. Once the mission is sent to us we begin to execute. The crews come out to the aircraft and get them ready to launch; the pilot in command and the medic get the mission information from operations [personnel] prior to launching the mission."

The two, four-person crews consist of a pilot and co-pilot, flight medic and crew chief, one team belonging to the lead aircraft and the other to the chase aircraft. Within minutes they don their helmets, flack vests and weapons, secure their gear, prepare for take off and are in the sky.

"Generally, if the weather is good enough, we can get off the ground in seven to ten minutes," Chief Warrant Officer Trammell said. "Usually seven minutes is our average."

Fifty-three minutes remain in the Golden Hour. The medevac birds fly over the Iraqi terrain, their blades chopping through the air. Palm trees and dark green vegetation blanket the horizon on one side of the helicopter with an ocean of sand on the other as the pilot prepares to land at the forward operating base where the patient was initially received.

The Army medics from Balad rush to the patients on the litters. The team moves quickly and carefully. Dodging the rotor blades as the sun beats down and sweat soaks their uniforms, they load the patient onto the helicopter to be transported to the AFTH for the next echelon of treatment which often includes surgery.

By this point, 38 minutes are left on the clock. The flight medic carefully monitors the patient during the flight back to Balad, checking his wounds and vital signs and trying to make him as comfortable as possible. He does this while making his way around the helicopter amidst the thunderous whooshing sound of the rotors, the strong vibration of the engine and the twist and turns of the pilot's skillful maneuvers.

"It's kind of tough, said Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Cox, a flight medic with the 7th Battalion 101st Aviation Regiment. "I do a patient assessment, see what the medics on the ground did. I talk to them before I take the patients and see what's wrong with them, make sure nothing else is wrong and go over their interventions. Then I treat them as I would treat them on the ground. It is a tight area but it can be done.

"You have to be careful about what kind of injuries they have. With head injuries we want to avoid high altitude for intracranial pressure," Sergeant Cox said. "We just have to be aware of what the patient's status is. If they're unresponsive or unconscious we don't know if there's a head injury so we want to stay at a low altitude to increase their survivability rate."

The crew finally lands on the helo pad at the AFTH. The clock stops with 23 minutes left to spare. The pad crew at the AFTH meets the patient and begins download procedures; meanwhile, the Army flight medic briefs the Air Force medical staff on the patient's condition as he transfers the care of the patient. The pad crew wheels the patient down Hero's Highway, the corridor from the pad to emergency room, where the American flag covers the entire ceiling, and the Airmen take over.

"The Soldiers provide the first line stabilization," said Staff Sgt. Joseph Couser, an aerospace medical technician in the emergency room at the Air Force Theater Hospital deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. "Without the interventions they provide, like keeping airways open and stopping bleeding, the majority of individuals wouldn't be able to be saved."

On this mission the patients lived, but there's no panacea or magic serum to heal all wounds.

"Unfortunately sometimes some patients don't make it," Chief Warrant Officer Trammell said. "That's one of the harder parts [of this job] not being able to save everybody, but we do our best."

"[The hardest part of the job is] knowing some patients won't make it no matter how much you do," Sergeant Cox said.

On successful missions, however, crew members take personal satisfaction in the work they do to save lives on a daily basis.

"The most rewarding part of this job is not only being able to help the coalition forces, but civilians also and being able to get them back to their families and helping them heal up and continue on with their lives," Chief Warrant Officer Trammell said.

With the mission completed, the crew hops back into their bird and flies across the base to wait for the next call and the next Golden Hour begin.