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379th EMDG, Qatari medics improve readiness

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Kerry Jackson
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar --  Airmen from the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group trained alongside their Qatari counterparts to enhance their ability to jointly respond to medical emergencies here, Jan. 18.

The training focused on a full-range of capabilities related to emergency medical response including: triage, treatment, extrication and transportation of critically injured patients. This training required 379th EMDG Airmen and Qatari medics to integrate and exchange knowledge that will help them jointly respond to real-world medical emergencies here.

"It is important for us to integrate our operations and capabilities, especially for emergency response, because we never know when something significant can happen and we need to demonstrate our ability to work together,” said Master Sgt. Beverly Lutz, exercise coordinator and 379th Expeditionary Medical Operation Squadron superintendent. “We do transport a lot of our patients downtown for additional medical care and knowing what their capabilities are and them knowing what we can do just further enhances our partnership.”

The Qataris who participated in the training are civilian medical professionals assigned to the Al Udeid flightline to provide emergency medical care. With the possibility that U.S. and Qatari medics could potentially be required to provide emergency care on the shared flightline, the 379th EMDG developed training scenarios that simulate scenarios that could unfold here.

The training scenario involved a two car motor vehicle accident with three critically injured passengers that 379th EMDG Airmen and Qatari medics were required to respond to. At the scene of the accident, the joint team rapidly triaged the patients to assign a degree of urgency to their wounds and to decide the order of treatment for the injured. During the training scenario, the team was required to provide field medical care, extricate the patient, and mobilize the patients via ambulance to the hospital here.

“Triage, Treatment and Extrication were the key things today and working together,” said Lutz. “Exercising these three capabilities allowed us to successfully complete our training objectives, and I think we are better prepared to support each other during a medical emergency.”

This is the third such training that the 379th EMDG has conducted alongside their Qatari counterparts and the unit looks forward to conducting more advanced training with the Qataris in the future.

“This has been an evolving work in progress,” said Lutz. “We did joint training in early January that was a quick small scale event, but we are escalating the training in baby steps and are making it a little bit more significant as we progress further with our relationship with the Qatari medics."