Friday, December 7, 2007

Medical Evacuation

Well, my first week back on Midway was, long, full, and eventful. Thursday night we had a medical evacuation of a crew member from a Japanese fishing boat. I was part of the crew that headed out to retrieve the patient in one of our Fish and Wildlife boats. This is actually the third medical evacuation that I've participated in at Midway so I'm getting to be a pro at it! Fortunately this fellow was in pretty stable condition and we had no problems getting him back to Midway. It was a little intense though, given that this was the first night evacuation that our crew has done together and the fishing boat is just so much bigger than our boat. Shortly after we got the patient to the dock and off in the ambulance to the airfield a Coast Guard C-130 flew in to medevac him out. Unfortunately the plane experienced mechanical problems in one of their engines and they could not leave that night! It wasn't until the following night that another C-130, this one from the Coast Guard air station in Kodiak, AK, was able to come in and get the patient and the crew of the other C-130 out to Honolulu. Then they flew back in last night with a spare engine and mechanic crew who are currently working to get the new engine attached to their plane and ready for departure.

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