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U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Mitchum, 20th Medical Operations Squadron clinic nurse and flight chief at the Family Health Clinic, poses for a photo at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., June 29, 2012. Mitchum recently returned from a seven-month deployment at Combat Outpost Khilagay,
Afghanistan. She was attached to the U.S. Army 2nd Forward Surgical
Team as a trauma and surgical nurse. Photo by Airman 1st Class Krystal Jeffers
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SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (7/10/2012) - In the darkness of the
night, a helicopter on a medevac mission flew across the hot, dry
land of Afghanistan carrying a wounded Afghan in critical condition.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Mitchum, of Shaw's 20th Medical
Operations Squadron, a clinic nurse and flight chief at the Family
Health Clinic, and an Army medic flew with the patient and monitored
his life support machines. The beeping of the machines was drowned
out by the noise of the helicopter.
Not even halfway through
the trip, the patient began to "crash." His blood pressure dropped
and one of his lungs collapsed. Using small green flashlights to
see, Mitchum recalled, she and the medic searched for the problem by
checking the drip, his pulse and ensuring that machines were
operating correctly.
After an initial burst of nervousness
because there was no doctor on board, Mitchum and the medic began
cardiopulmonary resuscitation to save their patient. While Mitchum
preformed chest compressions, she called to the pilot |
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to turn around. |
The medical team at Combat Outpost Khilagay, Afghanistan,
was able to save the man's life after performing a
one-and-a-half-hour surgery.
For her first
deployment, Mitchum was attached to the Army's 2nd Forward
Surgical Team and was sent to Khilagay as a trauma and
surgical nurse for a six-month tasking.
Air Force
medics, like Mitchum, are embedded in Army units because the
Army tends to deploy entire units or squadrons while the Air
Force sends individuals who are needed, said Lt. Col. Jere
Pound, 20th Medical Group chief nurse and a native of
Columbus, Ga.
She was on an Afghan Army base so she
worked often with them as well as the U.S. Army, said
Mitchum, who is a native of Granite Falls, N.C. There was
also a German special forces unit and a Hungarian
operational mentor liaison team. Her team mentored Afghan
doctors. Occasionally, in surgeries and mass casualty
incidents a German surgeon would assist.
Working
together helped foster relationships with coalition forces
and foreign nationals, she said.
"There were only two
airmen on my base: my medic and me. But, we never felt as if
we were outsiders. No one treated us differently. They
welcomed and treated me as one of their own. We had the same
mission, so it didn't matter what service you were from,"
she continued.
Mitchum, who was one of only four
American females at the site, was part of the first group of
Air Force augmentees to be placed with the Army's forward
surgical team.
"Our overall mission was to be the
combat surgical support for U.S. and coalition forces,"
Mitchum said. "We provided life-saving and stabilizing
surgery to patients, and then flew them to a higher level of
care. It is a totally different type of nursing."
The
biggest difference between working state-side and working
downrange was the severity of injuries. In a clinic, she was
in a control setting and most people come in for needs like
the flu. In Afghanistan, she was a trauma nurse and
performed life-saving surgery, she continued.
"Depending on where they go, troops are frequently in places
where people are actively trying to harm them," Pound said.
"They are potentially shot at or, in some cases, undergo
rocket attacks."
Their patients included victims from
gun shots, improvised explosive device blasts and suicide
bombers.
"Every patient that came to us was a
critical patient that needed life-saving surgery," said
Mitchum. "I miss the type of patient care that I did. I miss
knowing you just saved someone's life and that you were a
part of a team that did that. The teamwork there is like
nothing else I have ever experienced. What you go through
day-in and day-out, you are not going to experience anywhere
else. I loved it. Being able to help people was like an
adrenaline rush."
"A lot of our patients were Afghans
too," she said. "I believe we were able to contribute to
winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans. They had
confidence in us and knew we were there to help them. We
helped their medical team as well, taught them how to care
for not only their Army but also their local population."
According to Mitchum, they saw more than 350 trauma
patients and only lost two patients. They also performed
approximately 90 medical evacuations to a hospital in
southwest Asia.
"I was able to fly in a medical
evacuation helicopter," Mitchum said. "Being able to go and
take U.S. troops to the hospital was one of the best moments
of the deployment."
Joint tasking with the Army is a
different experience for the Air Force medical personnel,
said Pound. By getting out with the Army, she was able to
experience a whole different world of medical care. She said
she had a wonderful time doing it and it will serve her for
the rest of her career.
"I feel very fortunate to
have been given this chance to go on this deployment,"
Mitchum said. "I didn't know what to expect but this
deployment changed me in so many ways. I grew as a person, a
nurse and an officer."
"I really respect my fellow
brothers and sisters in arms for what we do over there," she
added. "You see on the news and you hear from people back in
the states what they do, but you don't realize what people
go through until you are downrange. I am proud of what I
did. I am proud I am in the Air Force and proud to be a
nurse."
By USAF Airman 1st Class Krystal Jeffers
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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