By Capt. Jennifer Dyrcz
Task Force Sinai
EL GORAH, Egypt—Peacekeepers from the Multinational Force and Observers, to include a flight surgeon, veterinarian and dog handler, practiced real world medical evacuation (medevac) procedures Sunday when they airlifted a U.S. military working dog from the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt to Tel Aviv, Israel.
Dano was suffering from an exposed nerve resulting from a prior root canal and needed immediate attention. The closest location for Dano and his handler was an hour flight to Israel.
“This is the first time Dano has been medevac’d,” said Staff Sgt. John Breyer, military working dog handler who has been paired with Dano for four years. “The standard for these dogs is to have a high level of care.”
Unfortunately for Dano the camp in Egypt where he calls home does not have the capabilities to provide this high level of care.
“The military working dogs program is new to the MFO and while we are working on getting the supplies needed to do a canine dental procedure on North Camp, currently our medical infrastructure is not as robust as we would like,” said Capt. Miranda Andress, force veterinarian for the MFO.
Luckily for Andress, Dano and Breyer Dr. Yoav Bar-Am and the Hebrew University Veterinary Teaching Hospital just outside of Tel Aviv was fully equipped to put the bite back in this K-9.
Bar-Am, who assessed the damage to the tooth, was able to repair it by confirming the previous root canal work was still intact and capping off the tooth further concealing the root.
“For a working dog we attempt to do heroic things to save the tooth so they can continue to go about their jobs,” said Bar-Am, who has operated on U.S. and Israeli working dogs in both the United States and Israel.
U.S. military working dogs are considered as Soldiers and afforded full health care and medevac as required.
“We needed to set up a medevac system uniquely for them as we cannot send them to a human hospital,” said Col. Keith Hiatt, MFO Force Surgeon. “To ensure the system we designed is operational we had to test it and since Dano needed dental care beyond our current capability, he was chosen as our test subject.”
Thanks to the treatment he received Dano and his Peacekeeping team, were able to fly home the same day with a tested medevac plan and a healthy dog returning to full duty.
“We accomplished our goals, the plan was tested and Dano got the care he needed,” said Andress.
Editor’s Note
The Multinational Force and Observers is an independent international organization with peacekeeping responsibilities in the Sinai designed to observe, verify and report on the 1979 Treaty of Peace between the nations of Egypt and Israel.