Reservist provide critical care for CH-47 crash victims Published Feb. 25, 2007 By Master Sgt. Chance Babin 920th Rescue Wing PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Within hours of an Army MH-47 special operations helicopter crashing in Afghanistan Feb. 18, two medical professionals from here helped save the lives of 11 of the 14 survivors from the crash. Capt. (Dr.) Karen Mackenzie, a trauma surgeon, and Capt. Kevin Wilkens, a critical care nurse, are reservists in Air Force Reserve Command's 920th Aeromedical Staging Squadron. As members of a critical care air transport team, they helped stabilize and maintain the condition of seven critical and four urgent patients as they made their way on an eight-hour flight from Kandahar to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. After the patients arrived at Ramstein AB, they were taken by bus a short distance to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Two other survivors were airlifted to Germany later, and one did not require evacuation. "It was a pretty hectic flight," Captain Mackenzie said. "We had seven critical patients...head injuries, chest wounds, and spinal fractures." Due to the extent of life-threatening injuries, Captains Mackenzie and Wilkens worked diligently throughout the flight to keep the patients stable. It was "absolutely imperative that we get these patients to a medical facility," said Captain Mackenzie. The critical care air transport team's mission is to operate an intensive-care unit in an aircraft cabin during flight by adding critical care capability to the U.S. Air Force Aeromedical Evacuation System. CCATT teams stabilize their patients initially, but these patients are still critically ill and need to be evacuated from a less capable, to a more capable hospital. In the end, everything went well, according to Captain Mackenzie. "(The patients) weren't stable when they got on, but they are now," she said. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)