MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL AIR RESERVE STATION, Minn. -- Members of the Air National Guard, from the 109th Airlift Wing in New York, and the 151st Air Refueling Wing in Utah, descended upon the Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Reserve Station, Minn., to participate in the Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) training course offered up by the CCAT at the 934th Aeromedical Staging Squadron.
The week long sustainment training in the safe and efficient transportation of critical patients culminated in a real-world simulation of critical patient turn-over and transfer between in-theater staging facilities and aircraft configured for aeromedical transport.
“Some of these places don’t have the equipment; they don’t have the planes to fly,” said Lt. Col. Mike Mackovich, Critical Care Air Transport Team flight commander at the 934th Aeromedical Staging Squadron. “Coming through here, refreshing and getting their hands in the bags, patient packaging and actually going through a mission; it helps prep them and keep them fresh.”
Mackovich went on to say that while the participating teams are being coached, members of the 934th CCATT refresh their skills as well while going through the sustainment training together.
The VA Hospital in Minneapolis, Minn., provided facilities, equipment and transportation for the simulated mission.
Teams worked with SimMan advanced patient simulators that help train critical time management, decision making and patient turn-over. The simulators offer realistic features such as drug recognition, light sensitive pupils and bodily fluid excretion to allow for practice without risk to actual patients.
Throughout the week the teams focused on learning packaging the simulator patients, (one with a severe head injury), assessing them to confirm they are stable enough for transport, conducting a hand-off from the Intensive Care Unit physicians and transferring them to the airfield for aeromedical evacuation.
“Packaging patients, assessing them in a hospital situation and getting them to the plane and through the system are key components to the training,” said Lt. Col. Mehdi Shelhamer, the medical director of the team and CCATT physician at the 934th AW.