Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard
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| Press Release |
Date: May 14, 2009 |
| Air ambulance professionals from around the Pacific gather at U.S. Coast Guard air station on Oahu for training |
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Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Henderson HONOLULU — Critical care specialists who serve on air ambulance or MEDEVAC missions across the Pacific joined the U.S. Coast Guard at Air Station Barbers Point on Oahu, for multi-agency training, May 13, 2009. The emergency responders participated in a Joint Medical Attendant Transport Team (JMATT) hands-on experience that included a C-130 search plane familiarization and orientation to Coast Guard medical evacuation missions.
Air Station Barbers Point medical department hosted critical care physicians, nurses, respiratory care practitioners and paramedics from the U.S. Air Force, the Army, and Navy, the Hawaiian Disaster Medical Assist Team, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Indian Air Force, in a practice aeromedical evacuation.
“It's very important that we build multiple inter-agency working relationships and solve solutions to the challenges for the safe air transport of critically ill patients," said Lt. Rob Kuhl, the head medical officer at Air Station Barbers Point. "It also allows for the other branches and agencies to become familiar with the Coast Guard and our capabilities.”
This is the first time the Coast Guard has had other agencies at the air station for hands-on training in the C-130 search plane for JMATT. The type and number of patients transported aboard Coast Guard aircraft was discussed, as well as the equipment used and which agencies join the Coast Guard under different circumstances. The emergency responders also discussed how Coast Guard air crews transport "bariatric" patients (any person over 300 pounds) from neighbor islands to Oahu, a service the Coast Guard performs to augment commercial air ambulances. “The field aspects I learned today will go a long way in helping us design our critical care teams similar to the JMATT which we can have in not only our Air Force, but our Army and Navy also,” said Wing Cmdr. Ajay Handa, a "pulmonologist" th the Indian Air Force.
The JMATT course is a five-day training event taught by the 13th Air Force Surgeon's office which allows for the participants to learn about aeromedical evacuation and improve their equipment proficiency skills. The aeromedical evacuation regulating organization for U.S. Pacific Command is the 13th Air Force's Theater Patient Movement Requirements Center-Pacific. Current JMATT personnel are located within the Pacific Command (PACOM) Theater, which includes Okinawa, Guam and
“Even though I have been stationed at Hickam Air Force Base for only four months, I can tell in this theater we practice joint-interoperability extremely well,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Fecura Jr., the Director of Theater Patient Movement Requirements Center-Pacific. "In this environment with the amount of water and area we cover it is important that we know each others medical transport capabilities. Coming to the air station, I am impressed by the unique equipment and the Coast Guard's ability to transport critically-ill patients."
NOTE: For more information about this news feature story, please contact Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Henderson at 808-535-3230. Download photos at http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=549724 and http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=549730. |
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