Logging Accident Head Injury Rescue! | Coast Guard Alaska | Full Episode

are you guys ready yes sir all right mission is star medevac of a logging injury we're going to be either hoisting off the beach uh or landing on a beach so it's probably the most complex part we're about to go on a case where uh young man had a head injury from a logging accident we heard he was bleeding from his ears and nose and needed to be evacuated to catch can hospital and if anything changes what we breathed will we address it in flight which will probably happen all right all right let's go see you out there the vast alaskan wilderness a place where beauty is cloaked by danger here every day the highly trained men and women of the u.s coast guard risk their lives to save others america's deadliest waters are protected by coast guard alaska the alarm went off for a logger with severe head trauma all right sharks remove proof sheet ready one of our big concerns on this case is the weather and so we're looking at how to get there if the weather's nice we can cut right across some of the mountains to save a lot of time if the ceilings are too low we have to go around all the islands which can almost double the amount of time it takes to get there okay four times take off ready to take off right tech fuel radar we'll just do that ronnie take off if you get that sir hey [Music] typical southeast alaska weather there was showers with low ceilings and route we didn't weren't quite sure if we'd be able to go over the top so we decided to initially head out see offshore 6032-6032 channel 233 got copy over coast guard sector junior rogers request your epa i'll copy over copy that sir they're requesting our epa hold on one second like we'll take a look at will bay if it looks safe we can cut through there if not we'll go around through there we'll see this time in a head injury we have a sense of urgency we want to get there as safe as possible but we're going to get there as efficiently as possible so these passes are decision points on every mission whether we go into them and cut some time off or whether we go around and stay over water where we know we have good terrain clearance you can tell about one hour if we don't run into any weather roger right now we don't know much about the patient we know that he's had a head injury and he's been in and out of consciousness we also know that there's a coast guard boat from ketchikan that are on their way and probably going to beat us there just due to the proximity of where they're at dirty mind if mike and i get on gunter's belt and start setting up yeah roger mike's a kind of our version of a flying corpsman he's there to assist me if we need any kind of medical help at all so i'll start with the ibu to get there i'll do a primary survey of them once you find out what time it happened how it happened when i'm ready and you're all done with everything he'll start the ib we'll roll up put him in package him get out all right i'm really concerned about his head injury being in and out of consciousness is not a really good sign we've also been told that he's bleeding from the ears which is definitely a very bad sign i can go real south real quick all right guys just update you we're going to go to walk through the harris river pass and try and save some time roger expected you know second get wow i'm trying to put up on a backboard and something about the emt here so we got the 47s on station yeah yeah oh fantastic if the 47 is there at least you know one of the real big problems that we have up here in southeast alaska is our radio communications there's so many large valleys and and big mountains in between us and whoever we need to talk to that communicating is a real problem for us we've been trying to reach our brethren on the water with no joy be advised we are zero eight bikes until we're on scene having to talk to a boat that we're only four or five miles away from we have to relay it back up to juno which is another 60 miles away so they can relay our information and vice versa right in front of us [Applause] coming good afternoon do you have an update on the fiction up on the clearing right now uh the beach was a little too congested all right roger that so what we're gonna do is we're gonna circle around take a look at this clearing and see if that's acceptable for us to get into uh once we're on scene we circled the logging camp a couple times just trying to find a good area for us to land we can land in there that's a tight spot we can come into this gravel area right here in between the log piles yeah that's a good spot right there yep just where the road goes up between the logs yes sir yeah if we go up to that other gravel beyond the loader once we were able to get there we realized hey we do have a good lz let's put the helo down we can get the litter out get all our med gear out we can assess the patient package him get him ready to go on the scene all right for uh landing checks screw brief all right i'll be approached to uh lz between the logs ready for approach for approach you're gonna have some tall trees that you're just gonna need [Music] [Applause] we got this guy walking down straight towards us i don't know what his intentions are but i'm in the door you know i'm looking out your altitude your depth perception you're looking at the trees any obstructions around because it's a confined area and our first approach as soon as we start coming in someone's walking right through our lz and that's one thing you have to call out because if you've got a person standing there it's not going to be pretty without part of your walking through 661 short apparently i can't walk through there we don't want to lose our skiff oh i guess their skin is beast and they're worried about us blowing their skills if you want to hustle i'll hold off [Music] i think we should be clear of them but just uh keep in mind the rotor system roger got that one tall tree right there right yeah our second attempt would come around we're coming in clearing the trees one of the workers in the logging camp starts backing a loader out right across our lz they're moving a litter if we keep moving everything we're never going to get the hell on the ground [Applause] all right it'll be approached to uh the lc between the logs ready for approach young man had a head injury from a logging accident we heard he was bleeding from his ears and nose and needed to be evacuated to ketchikan hospital our second attempt would come around we're coming in clearing the trees one of the workers in the logging camp starts backing a loader out right across our lz yeah if you could please tell everybody to stand still if we keep moving everything we're never going to get the hell on the ground more try guys you're over the log you're over the road and the tail's clear all right still wheels on jackson's left lane right now all right guys be careful uh walking him down looks like a mess yeah this is pretty muddy yeah i think we slid a little bit in the mud yeah we did when we did land the first thing i noticed is you took a step out of the helicopter and your boots sort of sank a little bit because it was so muddy so we were pretty glad to have the small boat crew there to help us transport the [Music] patients we know that the patient's been hit in the head uh we don't know if there's any other secondary injuries and so you can kind of get tunneled into oh he's got a head injury head injury and may miss all the broken bones or internal bleedings that may have been secondary to this [Music] make sure you get down when it's time to get the patient to the helo i like to use as many people as possible especially in a situation like that if you've got six people you know if you were to slip and fall and you lose contact with the litter then you've got five more that can stabilize it until you can get back up versus if it's two of you and one of you go down then the litter's going with you everybody's ready for takeoff yes sir everybody strapped in we're on ics and we are ready to take off all right take off check circle please [Applause] be advised we are airborne at this time and we're out to wolf point catching camp patient is stable we will be there in approximately one zero bike request that you have an ambulance there on site waiting for us roger get copy we already have an ambulance waiting for you on scene over after loading the pace from the helicopter it was a really quick transit so the main thing that chris and i had discussed after seeing how stable he was was we were just going to keep reassessing his vitals and just keeping him on o2 and monitoring about five minutes out guys yeah he looks like he's in a little bit of pain yeah the ambulance is already there which is a good relief because we know that we can pass him off immediately and get him off to the hospital [Applause] being a part of the organization and what we do here and provide the service for the community and residents of alaska it really is uh it's rewarding you're able to to help someone out that's in a time of need and at the end of the day when you hang your helmet up go home just put smile on your face knowing that you were able to contribute to society in some type of way or form [Music] i woke up in camp and they told me i got hit and i don't know if that's going to be all right or not next thing i knew i was on the coast guard helicopter i ended up with a little bit of hearing loss and a crack skull and my brain was bleeding it was serious but i'm alive i just want to say thanks to the coast guard for coming and helping me and getting there fast [Music] flight plan is on file with the yellow sheet the weather is good both here and in juneau today is my last flight here at air station sidca maybe my last flight ever maybe my last flight in the 860. so it makes it a bit of a special mission special day [Applause] removed reporter for takeoff ready for takeoff there we go as the clock ticks down my last days here at air station said there's a lot of bittersweet feelings to it the hardest thing to leave is going to be the crew the end of the day is probably the people this is the best part the crew here is sick it's awesome but right close behind that is flying flying in alaska when the weather is gorgeous is unbelievable the mountains are huge the water is clear the you get whales you've got other wildlife around it's just really awe-inspiring so beautiful weather for the last flight made it pretty cool there's a certain sense of satisfaction you get after you've had a white knuckle flying in the hood you get back here like that yeah right now we still do that so i like that too every air station faces bad weather at some point what's unique about alaska is when you couple the distances the remoteness the terrain with the heavy weather that's what makes alaskan flying really challenging dr gino's 203 speed advisor final approach back to you home plate oh it's right there it's right there in many ways as the coast guard aviator you're in your spurs up here this is where you really put the polish on did you write this i didn't know anything about it captain it's a unique opportunity it's a unique challenge to be able to to operate up here and conduct missions thank god that we just repainted the lines yeah [Music] even though it's embarrassing to have all this fuss made over you it makes you feel good that they went to that much effort and that much trouble and it really just kind of puts the capstone on the day great weather great crew with a great ending and i can't think of many many ways that are better to go out on [Music] the motor vessel took a rogue wave and we have severe injuries to three crew members aboard the vessel going down the fly surgeon's concern is that these guys could lose their legs if we don't get them to medical care as quick as we can keep a hand hold on [Music] all right so i think you guys all have the picture what's going on the vessel took some heavy rolls probably in 30 or 40 footers it's been over 24 hours you got compound fractures heavy lacerations possible head injuries the motor vessel took a rogue wave and we have severe injuries to three crew members aboard the vessel they were inside the cabin the rogue wave hit and they were launched across the cabin impacted the wall on the other side so we're going to send two 860s on this one the severity of the injuries also call for a flight surgeon to go with us the problems you have is you got the three folks like we talked about pretty bad shape so you're gonna take the dock you're gonna take two swimmers two helicopters one's gonna deliver two folks plus two litters then the other helicopter's gonna pull in deliver another rescue swimmer and another litter we're planning on reviewing with them uh today at the 200 nautical mile point so 200 nautical miles for the h60 is about an hour and 40 minute flight which will allow us to get on scene and have 30 minutes to an hour of hover time per aircraft the captain's really pushing hard through big c's trying to close as much distance as you can towards that 200 nautical mile rendezvous point obviously the flight surgeon's concern is is that these guys could lose their legs if we don't get them to medical care as quick as we can c-130s will provide cover the whole way for you just up up high guys i want you to hang on scene in orbit too the entire time um you can pass comms back anything they need all that stuff questions yes sir all right be safe c-130 does a couple of different things for us the biggest thing it can do is get on scene first determine the best wins when we're in route but the other thing they do for us is they can start talking to the vessel and give them an idea of how we want to conduct the the evolutions that's going to help us save gas it's going to give us more time on scene 604 should arrive on scene first and we'll be about 15-20 minutes behind they're going to deliver the flight surgeon and the corpsman so that they can uh assess the situation so after a couple hours of coordination in the kodiak hangar prepping the cabin for the equipment that we're taking out there the plan is for my aircraft to head out first uh we've got the second h60 helicopter uh they're just a few minutes behind us all right we're about six minutes behind the tech well the bering sea and the gulf of alaska are notorious for being big being dangerous and uh when the 600 foot vessel reports that they've hit a wave big enough to injure their crew members who were probably seasoned mariners and been underway for a large portion of their life we know the seas have gotten really big out there one two four four just wanted to know if you guys had uh figured out where the preparations um so the c-130 is out ahead of us talking to the vessel and doing a lot of the briefing items talking to the crew members you know seeing what the on-scene conditions are and essentially setting the scene up for a successful hoist those towers are pretty big yeah so are the incentives on the superstructure as the first helicopter on scene one of the big concerns right now that i have is our on-scene time i've briefed my swimmers and i've briefed the flight surgeons that they've got about 20 to 30 minutes total to get this entire mission done before we have to point the aircraft back to kodiak and start heading home zach once we put eli down how much time are you gonna need to get um doc in the basket i can have him ready to go before i even put him down you know the faster we can get these guys going the better uh as we're evaluating the ship we notice that a really big area in front of the superstructure vince jansen and myself talked about how we could use that area it was a good open area what would your guess say bill um i would say for the forward area i could at least yeah have them go down to it see what they think about transiting to there with the patient i see a ladder right here that does not look like fun with a survivor but at least i would get you guys down there right right ready for a direct deployment of the swimmer see the boat warmers going down [Applause] about a 600 foot freighter they've apparently been hit by a large wave there's three injured crew members the status of the crew members is a little bit unknown but we know that there's some compound fractures and there's a possible head injury is going down 420 clear left swing is pretty good easy forward easy forward swinging quite a bit swimmer's on deck away swimmers okay first voice was a little hairy the boat was moving pretty fast and trying to keep up with the movement of the boat and uh dropping the swimmer down um then dropped the flight surgeon down after that i probably scared him a little bit being that high off the boat [Music] the wind was trying to push me and i had the bag and that was the first time i was thinking oh this is this is a little scary it was a little bit different i don't do this every day so hoisted down 50 feet that was the farthest the longest i've been hoisted down and helicopter number two is now ready once the first aircraft got everything delivered down we moved in we put down the two litters and our rescue swimmer in the basket to that area for the bridge we had a good game plan to begin with because we got to watch the other crew do it and there was already a swimmer on deck so he could help our swimmer out all for this [Applause] disconnect conservatively you guys have about 20 minutes over we had a very small window of time to get them back up to be able to get back with fuel they took me to the first person who was probably the most injured one then went on to the second person same thing went in there multiple injuries they had him splinted very well went and saw the third survivor after that but they had treated him well with what they had without question it was a crew that really helped these folks out more than anything else [Music] i found the dock he was still putting the ivs in once i got my eyes on the patient uh you know he was in a much more critical state than i had expected compound fracture to his left leg his right arm was broken he had some bleeding out of his uh ears and nose so we were just keeping an eye on his blood pressure spo2 anything like that we put the patient in a c-collar and then put him on the backboard [Music] looks like he's getting us the patient right now it's like you ready to roll the gentleman with the most severe injuries and the head injury he's going to come up first into my helicopter and we're going to get him back to kodiak as soon as we can easy ride he got about halfway up to the cabin and i realized his face was definitely pretty beat up and he took a bad fall keep a hand hold on him sir never had a case where somebody was this badly hurt so i knew how to get it done as fast as i could after we got the patient in the helicopter we had doc jump in the basket so he get hoisted in the helo after doc got in the helo they kept the basket attached send it back down to me bring you back kevin we're at minimum fuel at this point we've got to head back to kodiak and obviously i'm thinking about the other helicopter and what their fuel state is my goal was just to keep the fuel situation off of the mind of the of the pilot and flight mechanic so they can concentrate on the the hoist and evolution and not worry about gas so as soon as we moved in we're able to pick up one litter brought that litter up into the cabinet the first guy we picked up had a pretty bad leg injury he was definitely in pain so i wanted to make sure that i kept his legs somewhere that the corpsman could actually work on him if need be [Music] obviously when you're in a hoist and you're looking at the fuel that closely that's a pretty major concern for you knowing that there's not any other spots to land for 200 miles can we do that how we normally hoist ormond is with a basket because they're not harness qualified i realized there was no room for the basket so we had to do a mad poo pickup of the swimmer and the corbin survivor [Music] [Music] how's that survivor [Applause] you know i'm approaching the kodiak we can already see that the ambulances they're already on deck waiting for us and which is a really comforting feeling knowing that we're going to be able to transfer the survivor as fast as possible to you know a higher level of care [Music] in a case like this you want to get them out of that helicopter as quickly as possible the air ambulance is there they know what they're doing and they pretty much take over one two three up clear oh yeah yeah we're going okay [Music] it's really cool to be a part of a mission that has this many moving parts you know we've got c-130s the h-60s we've got civilian air ambulance services we've got the fire department that's out here helping us transport the survivors the guys on the ship the crew on the ship did a great job of doing what they could good to help him kudos for those guys i mean for not having medical skills they they improvised and came up with plants and uh did a pretty good job today we've got a call for a medevac out of haynes and it went up to 40 knots i mean it's blowing he's unconscious in having a ventilator breathe for him right there we know that he's in in serious shape we need to get this individual in the air as fast as we can how close are we to home [Applause] we're going in the airplane buddy going in the airplane i'm vincent jansen i'm here with my wife ellie today and my son fraser and we're heading down to fraser lake you're ready for a big adventure we're going on a last little adventure in kodiak today before we leave the island so that vincent can go to grad school down in arizona guys ready hey i'm excited i hope you guys are awesome yeah today we're flying with chris my neighbor here in kodiak he's a pilot flies the beaver the float planes and he's going to take us down to the south side of the island living in kodiak so little of the island is accessible by car it's really great to get on a float plane and see the rest of the island which is just incredibly beautiful well after four years in kodiak you know i've done a few flights over the island and gotten to know some pretty cool spots some of my favorite passes so it was really fun getting a chance to point out some of those spots to my wife pretending that my son is actually going to remember it we saw loads of mountains and lakes and lots of beautiful rivers and you realize just how fast it is and what a real wilderness it is out there the landing was very smooth fraser he was asleep the whole time and just woke up when we uh when we got there let's make our way down it's a 20-minute walk a little bit scout on the trail there kodiak island is known for the kodiak brown bear today we're hoping to see them down uh kind of in their natural habitat oh my god they're on the trail oh my [Music] probably just me god down the trail there you go staring the trail with a bear that is absolutely my closest encounter with a bear here in kodiak luckily those bears down there are doing their own thing you know humans we get out of their way we're in their territory we had an absolutely amazing last adventure kodiak i'm sad to leave this beautiful place i really am [Music] kodiak's been just such an awesome experience for me and and for my family getting a chance to spend our last few days like this with friends um couldn't ask for anything more maybe a future pilot might never know fraser he was a star today just real content real quiet i can't imagine what's going on that little head of his i don't know if he'll remember it but hopefully he'll have a sense of adventure like we did what a day he enjoyed every moment [Music] probably an hour and a half from the time we were born but i'll give you an updated eta we do not have the weather today go over the top like direct today we've got a call for a medevac out of haynes all right we'll get rolling we've got a gentleman who's having seizures the initial call is having us take him to juneau for handoff to guardian transport down to seattle or anchorage 56 year old with seizures blood pressure is low he's unconscious in having a ventilator breathe for him right there we know that he's in in serious shape we need to get this individual in the air into juno as fast as we can [Music] it takes about two hours to get up to haynes even as we were taking off from here the weather was uh deteriorating immediately we're in snow showers all you see is a you know blurry white in front of you minus six now by seven now had it went up to 49 i mean it's blowing it's gonna be one of those flights cold windy overcast typical winter alaskan weather i said you've been complaining of a headache for the last week and then last night he just went into seizures might cell counts really high like way high so they're fighting an infection somewhere oh it's just a doctor not the nerve i don't know he's on a ventilator it's way above any of us we do need to bring a doctor with us luckily there's a doctor at haynes that's been with him since the beginning of this wow this is the best weather of the aor right here the ice pack yep that's crazy land right there after flying about two two and a half hours ironically enough as soon as we could see haynes the weather cleared up and it's the best weather of the day as soon as we got to our landing site all right parker cleared out boys so we successfully landed taxiing it in the uh ambulance was uh awaiting our arrival i immediately poured the ambulance the patient was completely pre-packaged and ready to roll [Music] with the patient's size it was pretty tough he's a big boy and luckily we had enough strong guys over there to help us out at one point i walked over and talked to the family you know just kind of gave him a hug and told him everything was going to be okay the doctor was ready to go they had the ventilator and oxygen and iv already brought him into our helicopter and got him situated and strapped in this individual is really sick we started building up with fluid and we had to start suctioning out all of his mucus and some of the blood that was coming up from him just to keep his airway open just to keep them breathing shortly [Applause] [Music] okay now the iv fluids you're ready to go for there's a 50 year old male who's suffering from seizures and is currently unconscious and on a ventilator sector 60 the original plan was to pick the patient up in haynes and take him directly to juno and with a 50 knot tailwind on us it would only take us about 15 20 minutes national weather service has issued a storm warning over the northern canal area sector be advised plants have changed you guys need to go to sikka for the guardian flight but we find out that the weather's so bad in juneau that guardian life flight can't take off from there and so now we have to take the patient all the way back to sick standby so now instead of a 15 to 20 minute flight we're looking at another two hour flight all right guys we've used half our fuel as of right now we just got to make sure that we can do it with the reserves we still have a monster tailwind which is looking to our favorite they were asking us to significantly extend our legs and significantly extend how long we had this patient being on a ventilator bouncing around in turbulence in the back of a helicopter luckily the doctor will be there we can keep him sedated as best she can uh and hopefully we have enough drugs for the whole ride all right buddy progressively throughout this flight he starts to kind of start really fighting and waking up here hopefully now i'm glad we didn't have the fuel he's pulling hard that's why he's fighting my hand pretty hard i jumped on his arms and was just trying to restrain him because he kept trying to rip his ventilator out of his mouth blood pressure's low so we need more fluids if you need it man open his vitals start dropping his heart rate's going lower his blood pressure is growing lower and it looked really grim sorry epa again about 12 minutes we both kind of had one moment where we kind of exchanged the look and kind of realized that this wasn't going very well and he's on this spiral downward curve to death sector security advised we need to expedite the trade for this uh patient ems waiting no guardians could be there guardian will be right [Music] the main approach to the taxiway sat down and got as close to uh the guardian aircraft as we safely could park all right we're out [Music] i walked out with the doctor and uh chris ball stayed with the patient and i went over and got a crew together to come back and help us lift the patient carry him over to the jet it takes multiple assets to get a medivac done in an area like this fortunately we had the tools at our disposal and everybody was able to calmly figure out what our capabilities are and what they're not for southeast alaska that's absolutely the norm my name is pete katzek i woke up here in anchorage and i was told i had [Music] i thank the seizures guard for coming to get me in such terrible weather and if it wasn't for the coast guard my wife would be at home burying me now coming up guys i got two great kids and a wonderful wife i need to take care of them because of the coast guard i got another chance thank you [Music] my name is captain ward salem and today we have the change of command ceremony here at the air station station 10 commander mark vistlay coming from air station kodiak alaska that was the operations officer uh here i'll be the commanding officer for air station sitka good morning and welcome to this great event this important change of command commander visually you have been well trained and you will never have a more satisfying assignment in your life you know command was always a dream i think it's a dream of every officer of course you're anxious you're a bit nervous it's a lot of responsibility captain ward sandlin today you leave behind a command and a district that is better off because you are here i've been commanding officer of coast guard air station sitka for the last two years and i can say it's been the best two years of my entire career 189 star cases 54 lives saved we found fishermen and fish totes we had heroic rescues on mountainsides and i couldn't be more proud of you i think that the crew is what i'm going to remember the most because it's the crew that makes the unit sir stand ready really sir i stand relieved ladies and gentlemen i now present commander mark visway commanding officer coast guard air station sitka i've been in for 20 years now i think a lot of us work for opportunities like this and i was just a little bit lucky sick is a wonderful place here at air station sitka it's not really a job and it's more of a calling to put the good of the american people ahead of your own it is difficult but for the folks who are willing to make those sacrifices the rewards are immense

Channel: DangerTV

Views: 462,088

Rating: 4.909977 out of 5

Keywords: logging accident head injury rescue, coast guard alaska, full episode, coast guard alaska season 4 episode 4, coast guard alaska full episode, coast guard alaska season 4, season 4 of coast guard alaska, us coast guard, us coast guard alaska, united states coast guard, united states coast guard alaska, danger, dangertv, danger tv, DangerTV, Danger, Danger TV, dangertv coast guard series, logging accident, head injury, rescue, search & rescue, coast guard search & rescue, military

Id: rHqsynNVxXc

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 05 2020