Medivac Rescue! | Coast Guard Alaska | Full Episode

when the weather kicks up the Coast Guard dives into action rescuers move fast to save a woman fighting for her life she is unconscious for unknown reasons a child suffers from seizures in a remote Alaskan village there's a heightened sense of urgency that you need to get this child to higher-level care hospital and on the Bering Sea a waterlogged boat calls for help as time is running out the Seas gonna roll them over or they're gonna lose gonna tip their life raft you just don't know these things the vast Alaskan wilderness a place where beauty is cloaked by danger here every day 350 highly trained men and women risk their lives to save others America's deadliest waters are protected by Coast Guard Alaska [Music] so here's the updated accordance I want to force WI crown this area here for 8 there about there 60 on this case we foster about 1636 we got a call from D 17 we're gonna have a medevac of a 53 year old female on a cruise ship the Norwegian Pearl she's unconscious for unknown reasons sector 3 0 press to secure our cart at this time we are on deck at Air Station Sitka our helo is already doing local trainer flights so it came in and picked up the dock captain white and then uh they got back airborne it should be about a 30 minute transit from the cruise ship we were told that the patient was unresponsive that could mean a lot of different things we see unresponsive to pain wishing unresponsive to voice did she move did she have a good airway does she have a gag reflex there's a lot of things that we didn't really know at a vital sign having the flight surgeon on board is a great help not knowing what exactly is wrong with this lady we're gonna have we're at a semi high level of care being that we have a flight surgeon on board and he can begin his his treatment as soon as she comes in to her mental status an airway we were given the impression that she had a complication due to internal medical problem that was treatable but I didn't know the extent of it and how severe it was at that point you have an updated position on the cruise ship we about to rhyme on scene we find out that they're heading south down Chatham Strait a relatively quick pace I'm gonna talk to the Norwegian Pearl hopefully are we jump Earl's coastguard helicopter six year old 3-0 about five to six minutes out right now and when we be hoisting the patient from the stern of the vessel the scepter will take place from starboard side that's gonna give you a full-on fill and let them underway we would be backing down in a hover and accepting tail winds and power margins that wouldn't allow us to do the hoist we have you at site now what is your current speed point six nine we are unable to hoist up your starboard side at your current speed we clip us to know if there's an alternate location to do the hoist in HIPPA time we're gonna have you come to all stop yeah let me check here with the crew as we come on scene to the cruise ship we're trying to decide on a suitable place to hoist to it is a very large and stable platform but in this situation they were going about 21 knots against the wind and we needed to be slowed way down Coast Guard helicopter no we just throw we will come to a stop for you that's a good copy we appreciate it coming up to ten nine still flowing once we've decided on the suitable platform and where we were gonna hoist from I got David white on with his Gunners belt and begin revolution to put him down on the cruise ship to get the patient package and retrieve [Music] keyboard right right an old [ __ ] ROI coverage okay when I got on scene and saw the patient she was in the stress she had altered Mental Status she was she had a look in her face like you could tell something was wrong with her [Music] most challenging part was getting her strapped into the litter because she didn't want to be restrained she was kind of fighting us getting strapped in she is able to get a hand free but you know house I'm voicing the survivor up in the litter as soon as I put my hand on the litter to straighten it out it was like she kind of came to and was very combative she didn't know where she was at what was going on I have no clue what it'd be like and how scary that would be to wake up and here you are hanging below a helicopter and not know what is going on some guy in a big orange suits reaching down to grab you I can understand the combative missing I can just kind of empathize with her that she was going through a very hard time so married or boys just complete our weekend portal go parent helicopter six year old three zeros we got the patient on board I [Music] looked at her immediately trying to assess how deep her unresponsiveness is and it turns out that she was able to move all her limbs just fine she was a little bit feisty at the time understandable but she was breathing without any labored breaths and so the most important goal is ensuring that she doesn't worsen in flight and so being prepared for possible complications to her condition good people are feel open move around yeah once we got the patient in the cabin the flight surgeons went to work on her and told me what he needed from me it was my second duty day in Alaska and you don't want to screw up you want to get out there and help somebody everything worked out for this lady today and we got her back to Sitka and got her to the hospital being that this was Dave's first SAR case in Alaska it was a moment that we would share stories we could tell for years that we were together on his first SAR case in Alaska and you could just see how happy was our crew had worked together and we'd saved this lady and got her back to Sitka [Music] about 2:30 the morning heads piercing alarm go off which is reportedly 31 year old male on a crab vessel that was vomiting blood [Music] there's not a lot that I can do to stop the bleeding dehydration it kills people [Music] when it's dated wipe my ast3 here in air station sitka getting ready to go spearfishing today the Native Alaskans would use the spear something similar to this this is a spear remaining survival training using something a little more advanced today using a spear gun this is a gun you guys should get in the water with you can dive down and shoot the fish with [Music] well the water temperature is usually in the mid to low 50s so it's this cold water but we have thick wetsuits that we wear and you get about half an hour to 45 minutes in the water before you get real cold so there's plenty of time to shoot some fish the spear guns are long like a big long rifle but you shoot them like a pistol underwater they're really accurate just takes practice like anything else I won't say I was getting stationed here in Alaska I was really excited cuz I get back into spearfishing the Zen of spearfishing for me is just slowing my heart rate way down going down deep once you get in the water and start diving down it opens up to a whole nother world and it's just a good time [Music] [Music] [Music] yes [Applause] [Applause] so he's probably pretty hydrated might be the focus of my night my name is a tenant Tony Lumpkin I'm on h-60 pilot and about 2:30 in the morning and heard this piercing alarm go off which is reportedly 31 year old male on a crowd vessel that was bleeding profusely through the stomach was vomiting blood [Music] [Applause] [Music] technically is just about 200 miles the weather it wasn't too bad which was actually worked out very well for us this is a medical case this is urgent we're going with a little bit more speed than normal my name is David column and hs3 here in Kodiak Alaska well usually with a GI bleed some inside the stomach so there's not a lot that I can do to stop the bleeding so the most important thing is to make sure that he's hydrated dehydration it kills people and a lot of people don't realize until it's too late we got right over the boat just as the Sun started rising it was kind of the pinky time in between a nighttime and daytime we got in radio contact with D vessel at that point in time the captain relayed the patient's condition sounded like the patient had gotten worse so at that point in time we know we really needed to get the patient to the hospital as fast as possible [Music] [Applause] [Music] like the subjects out back there or if I talk to the campaign and they're able to help yeah they're basket to the center deck talking to the captain we did find out the patient was ambulatory which means he was able to walk under some assistance from a crew member but enough to where we did not need to lower a rescue swimmer on board to help package the patient for the hoist and that way they could just put the patient into the basket and complete the hoist as fast as possible [Music] basket is on deck drivers clear vessels with a blue back [Music] drivers right below average or drivers going inside cabin [Applause] amt2 Nick Davenport as best came up to the door and noticed he was in pretty bad shape he had a tough time getting out of the basket he was he was shaking really bad you could tell he was severely dehydrated pale he had vomited several times and it had been over over a 12 hour period that this has been going on so he had lost about a but a significant amount of blood he was very lethargic and wasn't really aware of what was going on just his pupils alone made me kind of stop and be like all right this guy's really not doing that great [Music] we got skal 4:30 thirty tear old male was coughing up blood on the crab-boat Chignik Lake is just about two hundred miles this is a medical case this is urgent on the way back to Kodiak the patient was pretty weak he was obviously pretty distraught pretty sick [Music] so because we expedited the oyster I didn't have to stop and have to get fuel and shut down for an hour with the patient on board we're able to depart the scene and get back to Air Station Kodiak to medical care as soon as possible so once we picked him up and knew that we were having to go all the way back to Kodiak that's when I had to start thinking at least two to three steps ahead of what might happen in the back of my mind that's thinking alright if this guy passes out what am I gonna do or if this guy starts throwing up more what am I gonna do if you know all these different scenarios I had to run through my head while also taking care of the patient type didn't it an IV started and fluids into him his his condition and state would probably definitely deteriorated during that two hour flight back when he had taken about bag and a half of IV fluid it helped his state of mind I'm back from totally unable to focus not really aware of what was going on to being able to respond his pupils came back to normal so the fluids definitely helped refresh between when we first got him in and dropped him off there's a hundred percent change in his mental status he was able to respond he was able to useful sentences and that's all we can really do is just try to to make sure that they're doing better when we drop them off than when we picked him up [Music] all-in-all was good you know saved a life and our job is to take someone who you know they're really at the end of the rope there's really no one else to call no one else that can help them out so we're pretty much the last line of defense for them so to be able to take that person out of peril and and put them where they need to be where they can get the care that they need you know that's what we do and it's you know very satisfying to be able to do that [Music] [Music] Thank You month old post seizures you briefed up with Doc you guys you know what we're talking about I've established it only dudes with sticks of fun my name is lieutenant Chris Enoch cinema h-60 aircraft commander hood Citgo Lester we have a child that has a high fever and has been having seizures throughout the night so we're gonna air crew together for an early morning launch to get up and go into the medevac that child so whether it's like what we just had come through is throughout the area so like I said really real safe well picked up through Carroll versus worse we'll bail out sounds very go back down around south [Music] plan right now is come back here is whether it's so far what we get Megan if it's clear shot at the Juneau ruins you do the same when you hear that it's a child in 18 months being so young myself as a father and everybody else that's on the crew that has kids there's a heightened sense of urgency knowing that the high temperature is gonna cause them the Seas again and we need to kind of control that when you hear the phrase vessel taking on water when that's the call-out especially up in Alaska you really move as fast as you can because the elements can be so severe that your survival time it is not really that high [Music] like trolls books that's a good check support bring forward ready up my name is Chris play on the Coast Guard rescue swimmer at Air Station sick in southeast Alaska so we just got word that we have an 18 month old infant with febrile seizures meaning he has a fever that's so high that it's causing him to seize since this is a medevac then it could be a pretty serious medevac that we're actually gonna bring ourselves a corpsman or an HS and what they are is they're a health service technician and they fly with us as backup for medical cases when you hear that it's a child in 18 months being so young myself as a father and everybody else that's on the crew that has kids there's a heightened sense of urgency that you need to get this child to a higher level of care hospital immediately super ready for approach it was petty officer Dennison I'm an avionics electrical technician second class stationed at Air Station Sitka so as we come in I call in the aircraft down on deck and disembark the rescue swimmer and the corpsman they make their way to the ambulance to meet the child and package the child up to be brought back to us and to be taken to the hospital I go to the ambulance to help the rescue swimmer in the corpsman bring the child to the aircraft and getting the father in the aircraft to who has to come with us by talking to the nurse was fun other that the child is definitely stable now in fact probably doing way better than it was in the night they just took its temperature and he was down to around 99 degrees which for me that's really good because it's bringing them back down to a normal temperature so all we had to do was maintain that knowing that the high temperatures gonna cause him the C's again and we need to kind of control that [Music] alright guys we're gonna come straight up nose it over once we get over trees and we'll be in or out the main purpose is what we need to do now is to start hooking up most of our equipment we need to get an o2 saturation which is a little sticker that we put on his toe and what it reads is how well his blood is moving oxygen through his body and then the most important thing that we have to do for something like this do nothing child's is stable so there's really nothing that we need to do or poke and prod that you could aggravate them and especially on an 18 month old in the back of a helicopter it couldn't be really nerve-wracking one of the most important things that we need to do on any of these cases is exude calmness you know remaining calm in that world of chaos is it kind of brings the level of tension down [Music] two Mormon Oh warm but not bad hey Chris what do you think it was hydration or suddenly not her child fever he was real cranky they tried to give up the bottle around stage two o'clock or so D just what take it very shortly after that he started seizing [Music] we made our landing in the Sitka and I could see that the ambulance was on deck waiting for us in this case the patient was stable enough that we could take the extra five minutes to shut the helicopter down it provides a safer and better transfer and it gives the medical personnel get up to do past information about the patient [Music] how you doing so old 2 o'clock last night started kind of whining - crying a little colicky they tried to give him the bottle and then very shortly afterwards leave him some a cinnamon it being just before we took off tempers has been really good yeah yeah yeah I DX right but he's doing really good and he just woke up [Music] the child's vitals were really stable the whole way home I mean it was almost picture-perfect it's kind of nice that when we're done with this case that you kind of look around and realizing that by 10 o'clock in the morning we've just saved an 18 month old infant one that's why I joined in what's why I want to do this and to that I actually get to and I get paid to do that so yeah it's a wonderful feeling in the morning you know now it's time for coffee [Music] the man was injected - I live in Maine go to Alaska it's an island you got a calling get there by boat or playing the Coast Guard is a very very big big help especially an emergency like this weather changes quick on us and apparently when they're getting ready to send him out door there wasn't that great hmm he wanted a team with him to take care of one way over and done when I was qualified there was a Coast Guard - the aircrew that came to my family have think you guys with the bottom my heart thinks but coming out and helping my son [Music] [Music] do you think we should go check out that helicopter over there I bet you do yeah so today we got some kids coming over from the elementary school we're gonna give a tour of the base the helicopters and then we've got some other things that we have set up we have a basket set up where we're gonna actually be able to get the kids into the basket and it will have them hoisted up on a little voice that we have set up separate from the helicopter so you get the experience of getting hoisted into a helicopter and then after that we'll be able to let them see a helicopter take off maybe even talk to them on the radio [Applause] [Music] my name is Caitlin Crawford and I'm a early childhood teacher at Baranof Elementary our goal from this trip is just to teach them about different ways that you can get around and a helicopter is a pretty cool way to do that it's a great way to get language out and get them talking about you know how we move and things go on up and down and it's big or small and just learn them basic concepts in a fun way to go fly and this goes forward to make you go faster and back to make you go slower and this way goes right and that way goes left and this makes you go up and down this makes you spin to the right that makes you suspend to the left think that you don't need to know about all that stuff Coast Guard get immediate sick we play a large role you know we do a lot of things with the community and the schools you know all of our kids go to the same schools and it's small school district and it's nice to have the kids come to the air station and they get to see the helicopters and the machinery and get to see what some of the parents of these children do for a living and it's a good experience to be able to pass that along to to the kids in the community always ready sugar bras [Music] it was a great experience for all of us it was a lot of fun I know the kids will be talking about it for weeks to come they had a great time and their eyes were huge so we can't wait to get back and talk about it maybe make a thank you note for Chris and Brooks does anyone want to talk to the helicopter on the radio we have a report of a boat taking on water and it's taking on a lot of art flooding rapidly we know that time is of the essence because we're not gonna leave scene until they're safe [Music] station uh ten-hut commanding officer Coast Guard Air Station Sitka arriving I'm commander Doug Cameron the commanding officer of Coast Guard caches in Sitka and today is the change of command so we'll be swapping over from me to Commander Ward Sandlin to be the new CEO of the Air Station [Music] this command for me it has been the culmination of everything I've cooked for my entire career I love aviation and the Coast Guard I love Alaska is a chance to be in command in Alaska there's only two our stations up here everybody wants them I was lucky enough to get one of them and so for me this as good as it gets [Music] from commander Coast Guard personnel command to commander Cameron US Coast Guard subject orders new assignment detached from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka on 16 May 2012 and report to the 5th Coast Guard district Portsmouth Virginia for assignment to duty as chief incident management I'm hoping for great challenges as my crew moves on and I will do my best but I'm confident as I look back that this will be the tour that that really resonates with me [Music] ladies and gentlemen commander Sandlin will now read his orders attached from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater and report to Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Alaska on 16 May 2012 for assignment as commanding officer as we get on the stage and exchange salutes which is the actual transfer of authority from me to him where's the lump in my throat you know this has been an amazing time for me and it's something I don't want to let go up but I know my time is over and it's time to move on retire the colors and salute [Music] commanding officer air station sitka departing hi my name is commander Ward Sandlin I am the new commanding officer at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka prior to this I was the operations officer at Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater Florida a large unit for the Coast Guard a huge difference in the weather the weather up here in Alaska obviously is is really probably the one of the biggest challenges we face so it's gonna be a big challenge to make that adjustment commander US Coast Guard the party I've had my last flight now at Alaska and that's that's really hard always wanted to be commanding officer but the key for me is being an aviator and the Coast Guard and I know that chapter is now closed date and so it was really hard to leave that behind and to know that my days of flying in the beautiful Alaska and AOR [Music] [Applause] you take a guard at this time we are interactive arcade our eta is 1/5 1/5 Zulu David white ast3 rescue swimmer at Air Station Sitka the alarm went off in the morning my name is Ward Sandlin commander in the Coast Guard I'm the commanding officer at Air Station Sitka when you hear the phrase vessel taking on water when that's the call-out especially up in Alaska you move with a lot of Oh equity and you really move as fast as you can because the water appears so cold and the elements can be so severe the Seas and everything else that really your survival time is not really that high that's good on with it [Applause] anytime you're in a star case you look at the weather and that's especially up here a huge factor can we even get to the to the place where we need to be it's also a factor for the survivors what's the sea state doing how is that in an effective boat taking on water how is it gonna affect anybody who gets in the water and has to try to survive in it the Seas gonna roll them over or they gonna who's gonna tip their life raft you just don't know these things so wonder if they have a football florida's looking over second self or if they don't have a hope at all they're just got a little [Applause] [Music] [Music] mark Newkirk I'm an 82 avionics electrical technician second class I'm a flight mech here at Air Station Sitka so when we got on scene we found them really quickly the biggest problem is this two fishing trawlers and they've got their booms sticking out on each side they have bait shacks and they have mass everywhere so there isn't a lot of room to hoist to on a 30-foot boat is covered in riggings [Music] we have a report of a boat taking on water and it's taking on a lot of arts flooding rapidly there in a cove 45 miles to the north and there was a boat [Music] [Applause] in cases like this your best option is usually to do what we call an indirect delivery of the pump in an indirect delivery and you deliver a trail line to the back of the boat bang out of a line and basically tie the end of the trail line to the pump can push the pump into the water and allow the crewman to pull it hand over hand and it basically pull the pump in that way that limits the amount of time that you're over the boat that limits the amount of rotor wash you're putting on an X the aircrew safer because you're not spinning all your time hovering [Music] [Applause] now that we have the pump on the boat we're watching the crew try to get it started and we see that they're having a difficult time we know that time is kind of of the essence because we're not going to leave scene until they're safe [Music] [Applause] when the captain came on the radio and said he couldn't start the pump we decided to deliver me to the water and I'll swim up and try and get the pump started put on my fins on my master when they let him down the water I just unclip give the okay signal and then swim to the boat hold myself on the boat climbed on sticking my fins off and started looking at the palm I could tell right away several problems gascan wilson hooked up and the suction hose was not in the water I was able to direct the crew tell him what I needed and then I was able of three poles to get it started and at that point I started dewatering they just dropped really good [Music] whatever you're ready we'll pick you up when all the elements come together and everybody does their job right you're able to look back and say you know we really made a difference in somebody's life we really made a difference today that's a great feeling anything that we do here at air station sitka involves teamwork especially in aviation there's no one person on that helicopter who's doing the mission who's carrying the load it's definitely a team effort [Music] [Applause] [Music] commercial fisherman Andy Keller at feat silver Lance I don't know about midnight notice I was taking on a little water my pumps totally failed at that point I woke up my deckhand and we started passing buckets of water and obviously couldn't keep up I realize we're getting close to the rocks cuz we were drifting that night so I called for help you know the US Coast Guard you always call them and they were there to pull us out of the water if we had to get in got real close actually surprised that we saved it that boat goes down I lose everything there goes my way of making a living there goes most of the stuff I own you know there's a lot of things at stake we are all very appreciative of the Coast Guard being there you know you have help now you know you're gonna be okay there's no words to describe how glad you are when you see them show up there's just no way to do that you know here just you're pretty damn ecstatic yeah you

Channel: DangerTV

Views: 128,009

Keywords: Medivac rescue, coast guard alaska, coast guard alaska season 2 episode 11, full episode of coast guard alaska, full episode of coast guard alaska season 2 episode 11, coast guard alaska episode 11, coast guard alaska tv show, us coast guard, united states coast guard alaska, united states coast guard, us military, danger, dangertv, danger tv, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, coast guard rescue, us coast guard rescue, kodiak alaska, alaska, kodiak, air station kodiak, air station, coast

Id: 3sSL_KRi1bo

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 04 2020