4,000 mile rescue - Chuuk Atoll

[DandyDon]

I'm surprised they didn't have a rescue team closer? Perhaps nearby teams were otherwise busy? Here's the site for the Hawaii based team: USCG Air Station Barbers Point

USCG: Diver With Severe Decompression Sickness Medevaced From Remote Chuukese Atoll to Guam

Apra Harbor, Guam – A diver suffering from severe decompression sickness was successfully medevaced from Chuuk Atoll to Guam by the Coast Guard Wednesday.
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Guam received a medevac request Monday from Chuuk State Hospital for a 51-year-old American male suffering from severe decompression sickness. A Coast Guard flight surgeon, a naval dive medical officer and the patient’s attending physician consulted and recommended a medevac as the hyperbaric chamber in Chuuk was inoperable.

Two HC-130 Hercules crews launched from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point Tuesday evening with a three-person medical team from Kalawao Rescue. Kalawao Rescue is a Hawaii-based disaster medical team that provides initial and follow-on medical response to major emergencies and disasters.

The airplane landed in Kwajelain Tuesday night to swap crews and refuel before continuing to Chuuk. The patient was then safely flown to Guam Memorial Hospital for treatment.

The aircrew flew more than 4,000 miles from Hawaii to Guam to complete the medevac. This is comparable to dispatching an ambulance from Miami to respond to a patient in Anchorage. The 14th Coast Guard District encompasses more than 12.2 million square miles of the Central and South Pacific. The HC-130, the primary means of conducting long range missions, is scheduled to be replaced by the HC-130J, which will bring increased speed, range and capability to the Coast Guard mission in the Pacific.

 

[Wookie]

Interesting. DAN often pays for this evac, since the Chuuk chamber has been down for a while. I wonder if the victim didn't have DAN insurance (the expense to send a CG helo to Dry Tortugas cost the taxpayer over $80k, I can't imagine what it costs for this one), or DAN didn't want to fly a plane, or the rest of the back story. Whatever it was, the taxpayers sure took it in the shorts for this one, with no chance of recompense.

 

[Mike]

I'm surprised they didn't have a rescue team closer? Perhaps nearby teams were otherwise busy? Here's the site for the Hawaii based team: USCG Air Station Barbers Point

USCG: Diver With Severe Decompression Sickness Medevaced From Remote Chuukese Atoll to Guam

Just another reason the United States is the greatest country in the world. What other country would have done this for one of it's citizens, which ones wouldn't have? I'd much rather see tax payer money being spent on this than the IRS or another government institution sending 200 of their workers to Vegas for a tax payer paid retreat with tax payers paying for suites at the Bellagio, caviar and Dom, and flying in Britney Spears for a tax payer paid concert for them.

 

[DandyDon]

Have you tested your PLB lately? Holiday coming...!

 

[Wookie]

Just another reason the United States is the greatest country in the world. What other country would have done this for one of it's citizens, which ones wouldn't have? I'd much rather see tax payer money being spent on this than the IRS or another government institution sending 200 of their workers to Vegas for a tax payer paid retreat with tax payers paying for suites at the Bellagio, caviar and Dom, and flying in Britney Spears for a tax payer paid concert for them.

Taking this to the pub.

 

[rjk75]

Doesn't flying someone "suffering from severe decompression sickness" aggravate the condition?

 

[Akimbo]

…DAN often pays for this evac, since the Chuuk chamber has been down for a while...

I was in Truk in March and the chamber was operational. DAN said it was down for a while being refurbished but had been online for months before I left. I was also in Gaum and spoke with an active duty Navy Second Class Diver. They also have a chamber and treated divers from Truk when their chamber was down. Hawaii seems very odd unless perhaps there were other medical indications that Guam couldn’t handle.

 

[DandyDon]

Doesn't flying someone "suffering from severe decompression sickness" aggravate the condition?

One of the reasons it's so expensive is that the plane flies very low to avoid that.

 

[Chamber Day]

One of the reasons it's so expensive is that the plane flies very low to avoid that.

I really doubt that flying low increases the cost much if at all. I would think flying 4,000 miles, stopping to refuel, etc. are the main cost drivers.

- Ken

 

[emoreira]

I really doubt that flying low increases the cost much if at all. I would think flying 4,000 miles, stopping to refuel, etc. are the main cost drivers.

- Ken

Though I'm not an aviation specialist, planes fly at an economic altitude, where air density is low enough to reduce the friction but dense enough to allow sustentation.
Flying low increases air friction which is traduced in greater fuel consumption and increased roughness.