Afghan crash survivors Medivac’d to Ramstein

***image1***Only hours after a fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan, Airmen from the Aeromedical Evacuation Control Team in Southwest Asia got 14 survivors on board a C-17 to Germany.

“That really made a difference in saving lives,” said Lt. Col. Lenora Cook, team chief.

Once coalition rescuers from Australia, Canada, England, Holland, and the U.S. reached the crash site, they reported that 14 of the 22 on board survived.  They rendered life-saving care on site and put out a call to the Joint Patient Movement Requirement Center. 

This is where the AECT took over. Colonel Cook’s team located airlift, air evac crews and critical care air evac teams. “In this case two CCAT teams were needed,” said Colonel Cook. This was due to the extent of the injuries that included head and chest injuries as well as multiple fractures.”

Amazingly, only hours after being found alive, 11 of the wounded Soldiers and Marines embarked on a nearly eight-hour flight to Germany.

“It was a pretty hectic flight,” said Capt. Karen Mackenzie, a trauma surgeon onboard with the CCAT. “We had five critical patients – head injuries, chest wounds, spinal fractures.” 

Her team worked overtime to keep their patients stable during the long flight but it was, “absolutely imperative that we get these patients to a medical facility,” she said.

Shortly before 2 a.m. they arrived on the Ramstein tarmac where 20 members of the 435th Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility loaded them onto two buses for the short trip to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

In about an hour the buses rolled out, leaving behind a cold and tired team from the CASF, but their shift leader, Tech. Sgt. Billy Bailey, summed up their feelings best.  “It’s what we’re here for,” he said. “To get the troops the care they need, as fast as possible.”

The wounded received their injuries when their U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter reportedly had a sudden, unexplained loss of power and control and crashed in Southeast Afghanistan.

According to U.S. Central Command Public Affairs, the helicopter crashed early on the morning of Feb. 18 carrying 22 Soldiers, Airmen and Marines.