June 2006, Issue 71 [pdf 2.8mb, 40 - Royal New Zealand Air Force

16
To carry out AMEs, medics, doctors and nurses must complete the RNZAF
AME course run by the Aviation Medicine Unit (AMU). The three-week course
covers aviation physiology, considerations before fl ight, in fl ight monitoring
and care, loading, preparing aircraft and equipment. This course is a tri-
Service course and we also have civilian doctors and nurses who complete
the course.
In November 2004 OCAF signed off on the Boeing 757 AME capability. The
Boeing 757 AME capability will be able to transport three High Dependency
Patients (Intensive Care patients) and three Medium Dependency Patients
(MDP), a total of six stretcher patients. No jet aircraft in the Asia Pacifi c
region can currently carry that many stretcher patients at any one time. A
757 AME work party was formed to see how this could be best achieved.
The 757 AME work party are expecting delivery of the fi rst 757 AME
prototype soon. This is a very exciting and major achievement for the
RNZAF AME capability as it has been run down and neglected over the
past 10 years.
FORWARD AEROMEDICAL
EVACUATIONS (FWD AME)
Related to the AME capability but with more of a military focus, the Fwd
AME is the movement of battlefi eld casualties, by helicopter, from a forward
position rearward so they can receive life or limb surgery. The feedback for
RNZAF medics who deployed to East Timor was they needed more specifi c
training in this area. The new course was designed by the AMU and TDHQ
in Woodbourne. A lot of data and information from East Timor was used to
look at what areas medics needed to be up skilled in. The Fwd AME medics
will complete a winchman’s course and HEUT training completed by No.3
Squadron and then they have an intense medical phase to complete the
course. This course is unique, as there is no other course of this type run in
New Zealand. The course will be run at the AMU and is also a tri-service
course allowing Army and Navy medics to complete it.
The new Fwd AME course still covers things that were taught on the
SAR medics course as supporting national SAR is still one of the RNZAF
outputs. The Search and Rescue Medics course was designed in the
1980’s to support the NZ Police in Search and Rescue. It was designed
around injuries and conditions people might suffer from after being lost
in the bush for a long period of time. Also back in those days there were
no rescue helicopters to carry out this support so No.3 Squadron used to
complete this role. The RNZAF still support the NZ Police in this role but
on a less frequent basis. The new Fwd AME course will replace the old
SAR medics course.
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Sgt Mike Cocker and
Major Linda Lampen-
Smith on Fwd AME
duties in East Timor.
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Medical staff transport
a seriously ill patient to
an RNZAF aircraft to be
evacuated back to NZ
from an Island in the South
Pacifi c for more specialist
care and surgery.
JOINING A DYNAMIC TEAM
Medics are one of the fi rst people to be deployed in times of need. It could
be disaster relief after a tidal wave, cyclone or earthquake or completing
an AME of a seriously ill person out of the islands. The travel opportunities
are endless both in New Zealand and overseas. Medics also deploy
to numerous hot spots around the world and we currently have medics on
deployment in Afghanistan. Other places medics have deployed to include
Bougainville, East Timor, Solomon islands, and Iraq. It is very exciting and
rewarding job and after nearly 20 years in the trade I still enjoy travelling
and helping people. The rewards are written all over the peoples face
who we help, even though they can’t communicate with you, a smile or
the nod of the head is enough to make all worth while. I have numerous
happy and sad experiences but I always feel like we make a difference.
A lot of the places we deploy to have very basic medical care so I learnt
very early on in my career you can only do so much. You have to be very
multi skilled in the medicine to be a functional RNZAF Medic and very
adaptable to changing situations.
You must be able to work in very extreme conditions with limited equipment
and supplies. I remember one night delivering a baby on a mud fl oor
hut under torchlight, with my battery running out and wishing so much that
the village had power. We managed to deliver the baby so it all worked out
well in the end. Another time was when we assisted in the Bali bombings,
we arrived about 3 days after the bombing and up lifted a lady who had
massive burns from the blast. Her burns had not been dressed for three
days and she had been given no pain relief at all, they ran out of pain relief
very quickly. One of the fi rst things we did was take care of her pain and
give here some fl uids, as she was very dehydrated. Then we fl ew her to
Australia for specialized medical care in a burns unit and to see the look
of joy and a big smile on her face when we where loading her into the
ambulance in Australia was priceless. It made all the years of training and
practicing for some thing that worth while.
If you like a challenge and like to make a difference then being an Medic
in the RNZAF is for you. The training is intense and takes about fi ve years
to be fully trained but the benefi ts are huge.
RNZAF Medics on a UN deployment to Iraq.
The medics accompanied UN Chemical, Biological
and Nuclear inspection teams on inspects after the
fi rst Gulf War. The deployment AFN71 JUNE was 06 for six months www.airforce.mil.nz
and they lived in Baghdad during this time.
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