KFOR conducts medical evacuation of newborn infant

Photo By Staff Sgt. Adeline Witherspoon | Sgt. Mike Lynch, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Pedro Vargas-Lebron, Sgt. Andrew Valerio and Capt. Justin Ratliff, flight medics assigned to 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, helped evacuate a two-week old child born with a heart condition in Kosovo, November 22. The flight medics are stationed at Camp Bondsteel as part of Kosovo Forces. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Adeline Witherspoon)  

KOSOVO

11.22.2016

Story by Spc. Adeline Witherspoon      

KFOR Regional Command East

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo-It takes a village to raise a child, but in this case, it took a flight crew to save one. When the flight medics of 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade stationed at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, received the call that a two-week old child was born in Gracanica with a serious heart infection and needed their help, they leapt into action.
“We received a request asking whether or not we could support a medical evacuation for an infant in an incubator,” said Capt. Jason Brand, the S3 Air for Multinational Battle Group-East. “We had to check if we had the assets available, if we had the crew available, and if the weather permitted. Being new to Kosovo Force, this mission was a way to test everything that we’ve been training for and to really explore our capabilities.”
The infant needed to be transported from Kosovo University Clinical Center to receive care from a hospital in Belgrade, Serbia.
“We loaded the incubator, the mother, the doctor and an interpreter to go with us to Serbia,” said Capt. Justin Ratliff, the MEDEVAC team commander. “When we got to Serbia, an ambulance showed up with a whole team of doctors. We got the gurney out with the incubator on it and they transferred the child to another incubator.”
For Brand and the flight crew, it was a mission that put their training to the test.
“Our training is pretty robust and it prepares us well, but it’s nothing like when you do it for real,” said Brand. “There are always elements that you can’t train for and that you can’t expect and you just have to react and be adaptive.”
The flight crew worked fast to overcome logistical challenges to get the infant the care he needed.
“We sent another crew down to the hospital to measure the incubator and to make sure we could fit in on the helicopter,” said Ratliff. “In the meantime, we had our crew back here rushing to configure the aircraft as fast as we could. In a matter of hours we got the diplomatic clearances and the flight plans approved. It usually takes seven days to get a clearance, and we did it in about four hours.”
Thanks to the tireless efforts of the KFOR crew and cooperation from Serbian officials, the infant received the care he needed.
“I never ran into anybody who was saying no,” said Brand. “Everybody wanted to help. We acknowledged our differences, but everybody had that common vision: we’re all here together and we all have the same goal.”
Sgt. Andrew Valerio, the paramedic on the helicopter, has always dreamed of saving lives and use the skills obtained from his civilian occupation to get the job done.
“I used to work as a paramedic back in Texas,” said Valerio. “I’ve always wanted to help people. I’ve been taking steps towards ultimately becoming a doctor and i’m taking college courses during this deployment.”
Hopefully, the success of this mission will set the tone for the rest of the KFOR deployment.
“We all worked together to save a child’s life,” said Brand. “We’re here to work with the institutions of Kosovo and the whole Balkans region to maintain a strong Europe.”

• Date Taken: 11.22.2016
• Date Posted: 12.07.2016 09:53
• Story ID: 216539
• Location: ZZ
• Hometown: BOWIE, TX, US
• Hometown: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US