Photo By Senior Master Sgt. William Buchanan | Rymfire Elementary School special needs shelter medical team stand together in Palm...... read more read more
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Palm Coast, Fla. - When disaster strikes, first responders jump into action in a moment's notice. When Hurricane Irma sent hundreds into special needs shelters, moments weren't long enough.
"We had 15 [team members] and we needed 30," said Tech. Sgt. Shawnna Landeros, respiratory therapist, 125th Medical Group. "I started looking for other people that were medical and grabbing them to find 15 more."
Civilians with transplants, feeding tubes and strokes continued to pour in. Every second counted.
"Within five minutes of me reporting in, Technical Sergeant Landeros grabs me and says this is what we are doing and they tell us that we are going out to Flagler to a special needs shelter," said Senior Airman Brooke Summy, medical technician, 125th Medical Detachment 1.
The team that headed to Rymfire Elementary's special needs shelter in Flagler County, with luck, had seven Airmen from the medical field. The team assisted first responders caring for the 502 Floridians sheltered there.
"When we arrived, one woman yelled 'The National Guard is here, the National Guard is here,'" said Summy.
There were several occupants of the shelter that were dependent on oxygen. Even though Rymfire Elementary had backup generators, Landeros knew that she needed a plan if the power went out.
"We identified where our oxygen tanks were and we realized that we had to get others that were at another location," said Landeros.
Guests of the shelter not only had critical medical needs, some required assistance just for the basics. On their first night in the shelter, Airman 1st Class Gonzalez-Jimenez, medical technician, 125th MDG, and Senior Airman Nelson Rolle, health services management, 125th MDG, were on the lift team.
"Every 15 minutes, we were lifting patients out and taking them to the restroom,” said Rolle. “We were doing that all night from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m."
While most of the Airmen found a few at least a few hours to sleep, one particular medical officer sacrificed rest in favor of solidifying a sustainable special needs shelter. He took it upon himself to evaluate the needs of the shelter and come up with a solution to providing proper care of these Floridians as they rode out Hurricane Irma. The solution: run the shelter like a hospital.
"The key to the group was Major Kurklinsky," said Lt. Col. Matthew Sands, chief of dental service, 125th Group Medical Unit. "He was able to go in and make the assessments: how many people we had, what was the need, what was the layout and what type of patients."
The first step for these Guardsmen was to setup a process the volunteers could maintain if or when they were needed elsewhere.
"Major Kurklinsky came in and basically produced the infrastructure and we implemented it," said Rolle. "He was the producer and we were the actors. We went in with a mindset of a mission, even though we were volunteers."
Although Airmen train for these kinds of emergencies, the wind and rain pounding on the shelter walls provided real-world experience that only strengthened their skills.
"It felt amazing. What better to walk into a situation knowing what to do and know that people lives are on the line," said Gonzalez-Jimenez.
The Florida National Guardsmen worked long days in response to the destruction Hurricane Irma left behind. The Airmen working in this special needs shelter were no different.
"In the four days, I probably got eight or nine hours of sleep," said Gonzalez-Jimenez. "I know that Major Kurklinsky was working 24 hours every day. Coffee really helped."
Medical expertise wasn’t the only skill Kurklinsky brought to the special needs shelter that night.
"There was Russian mother from New York with a 6-month-old baby that had come on vacation and got caught in the storm," said Sands. "She had a hard time communicating because she spoke Russian. Maj. Kurklinsky speaks Russian, and he was able to communicate with her and get her some help."
Sands, Landeros, Summy, Rolle and Gonzalez-Jimenez all credited the success of their mission to Maj. Andrew Kurklinsky, a medical provider with the 125th Med Det-1.
"We asked for this mission, because I knew that this was going to be a need," said Kurklinsky. "My priority was to set up a system that was functional, successful and enduring. You have to run it like a hospital."
With the team giving Kurklinsky a lot of credit, he gives the credit back to all the volunteers involved.
"Everyone went beyond and everyone went out of their comforts of their particular jobs," said Kurklinsky. "I appreciate the reflections of my team for my leadership, but I couldn't have been successful without my team, their enthusiasm or dedication."
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2017 13:36 |
| Story ID: | 248254 |
| Location: | PALM COAST, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 450 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Florida Guardsmen run sole Flagler County Hurricane Irma shelter like hospital, by SMSgt William Buchanan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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