Expect the worst: Mass casualties

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Melissa Harvey
  • 301st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
NAVAL AIR STATION FORT WORTH JOINT RESERVE BASE, Texas --  A mass casualty event is something that no one wants, but for military medical personnel, it's something that is expected and a focus in training.

One way to accomplish training in this area is to conduct a mass casualty exercise. This is exactly what the 301st Medical Squadron, the 136th Medical Group, Navy personnel from the base, and local civil air patrol units did, Sunday, June 23, at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas.

"The goal is to facilitate learning in a joint effort as well as individual training requirements so that we could actually answer and work a mass casualty," said Maj. Carol Jones, 301st Medical Squadron pharmacist.

The exercise was held on the base softball field where medical and moulage tents, a pharmacy, along with other needed supplies, such as a water buffalo, were set up surrounding an open area where the action took place.

For the exercise, events leading up to the casualties include careless social networking posts.

"A unit was to report for drug urine testing, so people got on their Facebook and Twitter accounts and reported it," Jones said. "A terrorist pulled up to the front of the command post with a truck loaded with a fertilizer bomb and it exploded. They have casualties that have been exposed to fertilizer, nitrogen and also now we have been told there is an anthrax exposure as well."

Indicative of how quickly a situation can occur, conditions on the "playing field" changed rapidly.

One moment, the field was busy with the sound of preparations and the next, moulage participant's screams and cries for help filled the air. They were covered with simulated blood and visible injuries such as cuts, eye damage, and one person in particular had a stick protruding from his midsection.

Most of the injured were played by civil air patrol cadets who have a mission to assist the Air Force in any way that they can, according to 2nd Lt. Dwight Tutton, a senior member of the Civil Air Patrol Composite Squadron 413 from Denton, Texas.

"It's awesome, it's really cool. I'm glad the cadets are getting to do something like this. Some of them have done it before and for some of them it's their first time," he said.

When the injured came onto the field, they were met with medics coming to their aid. Each injured person held a card that gave specific symptoms they were experiencing. This aided the medical personnel in their assessment of the injured and to help them decide what their next step was going to be.

Medics had to either walk with or get litters to assist the injured to the appropriate medical tent and then take the proper steps to treat them.

For Capt. Rose Adams, a clinical nurse with the 136th Medical Group the takeaway from this exercise is experience. "Training for most of the nurses and medical technicians because some of them don't have outside experience,'' she said. "So, it's good to get them this medical experience in what it could be like to actually be out in the field taking care of a mass amount of patients at one time."

This training gives medical personnel the opportunity to act under pressure in a learning environment, rather than in real life.

"Overall it is a good exercise," said Navy Hospitalman Melody Zemanek, who is stationed at the base medical clinic. Definitely take the time to make sure you do things right. That one little extra second to think will help out a lot."

Not everything was simulated during the exercise, some things were real.

What's really nice for the 301st Medical Squadron is that we have actually had hands on, said Jones. We've been able to open up the medical packages and actually watch central lines being put in, ventilators being set up, we all have live oxygen. So we have the ability to see a lot of that stuff hands-on experience, not just simulated.

"It's just been great; it's been a good joint effort, she said. "I think both teams have really merged well together. Communication is huge and I think it's worked really great."