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375th MDOS personnel help evacuate Amercian volunteers injured in Honduras

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Sabrina Foster
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
01022007 --  Servicemembers assigned to the 375th Medical Operations Squadron performing duties at a forward operating base in Honduras helped medically evacuate American volunteers after a bus crash near the village of Mal Pais, Honduras, Feb. 6.
Three people died and 10 others suffered head trauma and broken bones when their bus rolled over in a remote part of Honduras.
"We were notified of a serious accident that involved missionaries that may require our help," said Maj. Cindi Willis, Soto-Cano Air Base Joint Task Force Bravo Emergency Medical Treatment officer in charge. "We were told to 'stand by' as information was coming in pretty quickly as to what had happened and what was needed."
Shortly after receiving the new information, the trauma team received word that it was time to board the helicopter and head to the accident site and instead of sending one trauma team, there would be two trauma teams and two helicopters.
"Around noon, we were told to get in a Chinook helicopter, en route to the crash site to take care of casualties," said Maj. Marcel Gustin, Soto-Cano AB JTF-B EMT physician's assistant. "We arrived 90 minutes later and began assessing and triaging the injured missionaries."
Fortunately, there was a doctor with supplies among the group, who had already assessed and triaged the casualties prior to the trauma teams arriving.
"The casualties with more serious injuries already had intravenous fluids running, broken bones were stabilized and lacerations were attended to," said Major Willis. "We provided a second assessment and triage and then loaded casualties onto the helicopters for medical evacuation."
The two most critical casualties were medevaced via Blackhawk helicopter to a hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The other casualties were loaded on the Chinook en route to a hospital in La Ceiba, Honduras.
Before the casualties could be taken to the hospital, they had to stop in La Ceiba to refuel. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse and they couldn't continue the flight.
"We're very fortunate that we have liaison officers on staff who work very closely with the Honduran medical system," said Major Willis. "I spoke with an LNO who coordinated care and transport of the casualties to a hospital in La Ceiba," she said.
The next morning, Major Gustin and Major Willis went to the hospital and arranged transportation back to the airport to continue the medevac to a hospital in Tegucigalpa.
"All the casualties were assessed by neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery and were cleared to continue the medevac mission," said Major Gustin. "We flew out of La Ceiba at about 1:45 p.m. and landed at Soto-Cano where the casualties were transferred to other medevac helicopters for the flight to Tegucigalpa."
Not all of the 375th MDOS personnel could respond to the accident site, but they still played major roles behind the scenes.
"We had a lot of different information coming into the clinic that morning, but we were able to get the right folks out to the scene as soon as possible," said Master Sgt. Wendy Lee, Soto-Cano AB JTF-B EMT clinic. "I was not able to go out to the crash scene, so we prepared the clinic in case anyone was brought back for evaluation, ensured patients were transferred to awaiting helicopters when the came in from the crash site and helped transfer litter bound patients from one helicopter to another."
The killed and injured volunteers were members of a 28-person team from four churches in Newnan and Cartersville, Ga. Their group is linked with the nonprofit organization Honduras Outreach, Inc., based in Decatur, Ga.
JTF- B is housed on Soto-Cano Air Base, a forward operating base in Honduras that supports a variety of missions, including counter drug, search and rescue, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.
"We train for this type of mission and fortunately they don't happen often," said Major Willis. "The people that were injured were very appreciative of our efforts and I feel honored to have taken part in this mission."
The role that each servicemember played that day was critical to the success of the mission. Whether it was responding to the accident scene, preparing the clinic for casualties or coordinating transportation for the casualties, all personnel involved worked together as a team.
"We had a team of great people, nurses and medical technicians from the Air Force and Army," said Major Gustin. "All work exceedingly well and took great care of the patients."