Wright-Patt medic team on fourth mission to Haiti

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Updated 6:51 PM Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A three-person medical team from the Wright-Patterson Medical Center made its fourth deployment Wednesday, Jan. 27, to evacuate and treat victims of the earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti.

The Critical Care Air Transport (CCAT) team left from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. with the 45th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. The team will fly to Port-au-Prince, pick up critically-wounded patients and evacuate them to hospitals in south Florida.

Maj. John Lynch, a physician with the 88th Medical Group at Wright-Patt, leads the team which includes Capt. Jeffery Marsh, an intensive care unit nurse, and Senior Airman Brooke Lohr, a cardiopulmonary technician. “Ours was the first CCAT to arrive on the ground in Haiti,” Lynch said of the first mission on Jan. 20.

During its three previous deployments — two to Ft. Lauderdale and one to Miami — the Wright-Patt team has evacuated 10 patients, monitoring the most critically injured throughout the flight. “There may be 30 patients packed on the airplane, but our CCAT provides ICU-level of care to three or four of those,” explained Wright-Patterson Air Force Base spokesman Derek Kaufman.

The most common wounds include crush injuries, burns, amputations and head trauma. About half the patients have been children.

Marsh said many of the patients have suffered burns and severe injuries for seven days before being evacuated. “It’s a different mission than we encounter in Afghanistan and Iraq, nonetheless its very rewarding to be part of this humanitarian effort,” he said. “It’s really hectic, really stressful because of the situation in country. You normally don’t get this type of experience in a career, so I am very happy to be a part of it.”

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