A multli-phase medical evacuation exercise began with a simulated plane crash at Ilopango Air Base, El Salvador, June 16, 2022.
After days of training with non-governmental organization (NGO) members of World Hope International and U.S. military medical members, El Salvadorian military medics put their training to good use by caring for different simulated injuries and evacuating them on a helicopter to receive treatment at a hospital.
“The best responders are the local responders,” said John Lyon, World Hope International president. “They are the ones that get called to a crisis and they save the most lives in the process.
Some of the training personnel completed were how to stop bleeding, resuscitating patients, using IV fluids, stabilizing a spine or a fracture, ventilating the patient as well as other techniques.
“This kind of training in Latin America often does not exist,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Hernan Erazo, Air Force Southern medical planner. “Something as simple as how to contain a bleed, a lot of the medics from many countries including El Salvador do not know.”
This partnership and training was not only beneficial for the El Salvador medics, but for the U.S. medics as well.
“The whole purpose of the exercise is to train our medics how to respond [if] we go to war,” Erazo said. “In the United States we have all this equipment, but when our medics go to different areas of responsibility like Afghanistan they don't have all of the medical equipment that they would have in the United States. So for them this is a good way to critically think on how to improvise when they do not have their normal medical equipment.”
Through the combined efforts of the U.S. medics and NGOs, the exercise saw the development and training of many El Salvadorian medics and will prepare them for future real life situations.
Date Taken: | 06.23.2022 |
Date Posted: | 06.23.2022 11:33 |
Story ID: | 423593 |
Location: | ILOPANGO AIR BASE, SV |
Web Views: | 83 |
Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Resolute Sentinel 22: El Salvador medical evacuation exercise, by SSgt Stuart Bright, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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