Posts Tagged 'rescue'

I spent about half my day today doing hoist MEDEVAC operations with another unit. They would call in a 9-line MEDEVAC over the radio, and we would respond. Depending on the patient scenario, I would either hoist in and evacuate the patient via SKEDCO and JP, or we would evacuate them via litter. It turned out to be some really good training for everyone involved, including my Crew Chief who received some extra training by giving IVs to the “patients” under my instruction.

I thought I would share a few more pictures from today as well, so you’ll find them after the jump.

Today we did some hoist training. Its a skill we train on pretty regularly since hoisting the wounded out or doing rescue is a part of our job. Generally, the medic (me) rides the Jungle Penetrator down to the site on the ground to take care of business. I’ll assess the patient, make sure they are packaged appropriately, the watch as the Skedco is raised into the helicopter. Once the evacuation is complete, I’ll ride the JP back up into the helicopter and begin the enroute care.

Sometimes this can end up pretty precarious if someone is, say trapped on a mountain, or we have to hover over wounded soldiers in combat. Even in training this can be a bit risky since we are still dealing with weather and terrain.

Anyway, one more pic after the jump.