LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Gunshot wound patients in Southern Nevada could be helping save the lives of U.S. service members shot in a combat zone through a partnership between University Medical Center and Nellis Air Force Base.
The Air Force wanted more experience to treat people with injuries similar to those of someone hurt in a combat setting. More than 10 years ago, Nellis Air Force Base looked at civilian hospitals for better training, specifically UMC.
UMC says it now has the largest military-civilian partnership in the country. Officials say on any given day around 75-100 Nellis medical staffers are inside UMC providing care.
Critical Care Air Transport teams
FOX5 just talked to three Nellis Airmen who are part of a Critical Care Air Transport Team, or CCAT.
Small teams fly into combat hot spots and pick up injured U.S. service members and U.S. contractors while providing constant care at altitudes such as 30,000 feet.
“Think of it as an intensive care unit on the back of a big cargo plane,” said Col. Dallas Hansen. He leads the Office of Military Medicine at UMC.
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Procedures in the air
Dr. Melissa Rosas and SSgt. Ashley Byrd flew into Middle East combat zones last winter. The plane picked up injured active-duty members, and the women helped care for them on the way to hospitals in Germany or the U.S.
“So when we incubate a patient in the hospital, there are multiple safety nets for us,” said CCAT member Dr. Rosas. She added, “I don’t have any of that on the back of an aircraft.”
“You’re constantly moving with the plane and the turbulence sometimes that can come,” said SSgt. Byrd.
“Saving U.S. service members, it’s a blessing, especially because those are my brothers and sisters in arms,” said CCAT member Lt. James Hurst.
Training for combat injuries
Nellis medical staff work alongside staff at UMC to gain more experience with injuries they would see in combat, such as shootings or burns. UMC sees these injuries as a Level 1 Trauma Center.
“We know that the number one cause of preventable death in wartime is uncontrolled hemorrhage. And so, when patients come to UMC that are bleeding, we get the experience of stopping the bleeding,” said Col. Dallas Hansen. He is the lead of the Office of Military Medicine at UMC. He flew missions in Afghanistan in 2018.
“I had one particular mission where there was a bombing, and they alerted us and said, ‘We need you to go over to this location and help take care of these patients,’” Col. Hansen said.
Staff discuss “by-directional learning”
CCAT members said similar things about how the hospital training has helped them treat injured patients.
“If I were put in a situation that maybe I would be a little bit uncomfortable, I had that confidence to be like, no, I know what I’m doing, I’ve done it multiple times before, and I just gotta trust my gut and my team,” said SSgt. Byrd.
“And it keeps me, not only as you’ve heard, confident, but also allows me to see that medicine is always growing and always changing,” said Lt. Hurst.
“Seeing the sick patients and the critically ill allows it to be almost second nature. And if you have the confidence, because the buck stops with you,” said Dr. Rosas.
UMC leaders say having Nellis medical professionals doing their rotations at the hospital means more staff to help more people. The retired head of the Office of Military Medicine at UMC says there continues to be a huge health care shortage in Las Vegas and the state.
“I love working at UMC because we are a safety net hospital. There are people here that need us, and they need this military presence because there’s not enough doctors here. There’s not enough nurses here. There’s not enough graduate medical education here,” said Dr. Jeremy Kilburn, UMC Pulmonary Critical Care Physician.
Doctor Kilburn put into context Nellis medical staff not being at UMC.
“It would be the same as taking any hundred people out of this hospital. It just creates a huge gap,” he said.
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