Joint Base Andrews NCO supports aeromedical evacuation ops while deployed to Iraq

Published Aug. 18, 2010
By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Tech Sgt. Margerite Hellwich is an aeromedical evacuation technician assigned to the 362nd Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

Sergeant Hellwich is deployed from the 459th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Deployed aeromedical evacuation, or AE teams work to evacuate patients from combat theaters to hospitals close to their home of record where further care will be provided, if necessary, Air Mobility Command officials said. These often lengthy airlift transports are when the AE teams must be the most vigilant.

AMC aircraft transport patients with an AE crew on board, typically consisting of two flight nurses and three medical technicians like Sergeant Hellwich. The AE crew is responsible for caring for and monitoring each warfighter by helping alleviate pain, administering medications and providing nursing care during the transport. A Critical Care Air Transport Team, or CCATT, is added to the crew for all critical-care patients. The CCATT consists of an intensive care physician, critical care nurse and respiratory therapist.

Sergeant Hellwich is trained in more than AE as part of her career field, her official Air Force job description shows for the aerospace medical service career field. However, for her deployed duties in performing AE duties, she is trained to prepare patients and equipment for flight and to prepare aircraft for patient enplaning.

AE technicians like Sergeant Hellwich also enplane and deplane ambulatory and litter patients, inventories loads and unloads baggage, functions as an AE crewmember, and assists flight nurses with in-flight patient care and documentation. AE technicians also monitor safety and security of patients, crew and the aircraft during in-flight or ground operations, and they operate specialized aircraft life support equipment, medical devices and aircraft systems related to patient care.

Furthermore, AE technicians provide emergency care for patients in event of medical or aircraft emergency and perform, when tasked, as a member of a mobile aeromedical staging facility during field training and deployment for contingency operations, the job description states.

As part of requirements for her Air Force specialty, Sergeant Hellwich has to maintain mandatory job knowledge in many areas to include medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, nursing theory, techniques and procedures and team nursing.

She also has to know patient needs, emergency medical treatment to include cardiopulmonary resuscitation, aseptic technique, medical ethics and legal aspects. AE technicians also have to know about prescribed drugs and their administration, operating and maintaining therapeutic equipment, military hygiene and sanitation, risk management, contingency operations and transportation of sick and wounded.

AMC officials said AE missions already in execution in theater can be re-tasked when necessary. "The process normally takes 20 minutes to identify the appropriate mission and averages six and a half hours from initial notification to wheels up for urgent cases and priority cases averaging nine hours," officials said.

Additionally, AE crews performed 19,025 patient movements in 2009, according to AMC statistics. This is equal to the approx number of people who can fill Madison Square Garden -- a 20,000 person capacity. Since Sept. 11, 2001, AMC has completed more than 154,000 patient movements.