Travis medical Airmen use skills, training while on deployment to Afghanistan

Published April 11, 2011
By Staff Sgt. Patrick Harrower
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Even though the David Grant U.S. Air Force Medical Center, or DGMC, has one of the largest areas of responsibilities, as well as an extensive mission, the hospital can still afford to deploy its troops to locations where their help is needed urgently.

At the Craig Joint Theater Hospital on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, more than 50 Airmen from DGMC can be found not only applying the skills they learned at home station, but carefully tailoring them to their deployed environment.

"It's a whole paradigm shift," said Airman 1st Class Adrian Velasquez, 60th Medical Operations Squadron aerospace medical technician deployed to Bagram. "Civilian and military emergency rooms don't compare to the emergency room over here."

Airman Velasquez works in the emergency room at the hospital, specifically in the trauma bay, where he treats wounded service members. The nature of the injuries that Airman Velasquez treats at Bagram are far more traumatic than he usually deals with at Travis, he said.

"Any service member that gets hurt here knows that we will be here to help them," said Capt. Michael Edging, 60th MDOS clinical nurse specialist emergency services who is also deployed to Bagram. "It's very fulfilling professionally, and a lot of lives are affected."

When service members at forward operating bases around Afghanistan are injured, their immediate problems are taken care of at the FOB. Then they are transferred to Bagram where they can be stabilized for transport to larger hospitals in Germany and Kuwait, or they may return to duty, said Captain Edging.

Patients that are being transported into or out of Bagram will go through the contingency aeromedical staging facility at the hospital.

"We will meet the patient at the plane and unload them to bring them to the hospital," said Staff Sgt. Dustin Giffith, 60th MDOS medical technician, serving in the Bagram hospital.

"It's a very rewarding experience," said Senior Airman Nicky Reyes, 60th MDOS medical technician who is also deployed. "I get to help out fellow troops, and they will share their stories with me."

Airmen Reyes usually works in the oncology clinic at Travis AFB, and is accustomed to a different pace, he said.

Sometimes other cultural and religious considerations have to be accounted for. In the nutritional medicine flight at the hospital, the diet technicians take special care in preparing food for patients as well as their guardians and family.

Our mission is different in its uniqueness," said Tech. Sgt. David Fernandez, 60th Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron flight chief, who is also deployed from Travis AFB. "Not only are we feeding the U.S. service members, but we are also feeding the Afghans and joint forces."

The biggest hurdle is to take the food from the dining facility on base and make it acceptable for the Afghans in the hospital to eat, said Sergeant Fernandez.

"What we do here in the nutritional medicine flight is a big part of the morale in the hospital," said Capt. Amanda Sager, 60th MDTS flight commander who serves in the Bagram hospital as well.

From the time that a troop is injured, Travis Airmen are actively involved in transporting them, treating them for trauma and even providing meals for them during their recovery.

"We are here for the troops who go out in harm's way," said Captain Edging.