JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Throughout the year, a unit of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston can be activated at a moment’s notice to help care for patients with critical burn injuries around the world.
The USAISR Burn Flight Team is a unit consisting of nurses, surgeons and respiratory therapists with the capability to treat burn patients being transported in military aircraft from anywhere in the world.
Started in 1952, the Burn Flight Team is made up of 15 members who serve at the USAISR Burn Center. The team conducts several missions a year to pick up critical burn patients including active duty service members, veterans, spouses or dependents of military members from all services, and to bring those patients via military aircraft to be treated at the USAISR Burn Center, located at Brooke Army Medical Center at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston.
Each mission consists of five team members, including a burn surgeon specializing in critical care, two critical care nurses, a licensed vocational nurse and a respiratory therapist.
Capt. Cassandra Bullock, USAISR Burn Flight Team chief flight nurse, said team members have to be ready at any time to go on a mission.
“We’re in a demand-status mode,” Bullock said. “We are on call 24/7. When we receive notice that there is a pending mission, we have a two-hour recall to be at the burn center to pack out for the mission.”
Once the Burn Flight Team is assembled, they pack up equipment utilized in the care and treatment of one or more patients, similar to an intensive care unit, or ICU. To get to their mission destination quickly, the team typically takes a civilian flight out of San Antonio International Airport.
“Our goal is to get to that patient as fast as we can,” Bullock said. “So with that, we often take civilian aircraft to get there so we can take over treatment of that patient and start stabilizing them.”
Flying back to San Antonio, the team and the patient are transported in a C-130 or C-17 military aircraft configured for patient care, courtesy of the Air Force. The medical equipment brought by the Burn Flight Team is then set up to continue care and treatment of the patient.
“When we go, the great thing is we are not just flying to get to our patient, but we are flying with a full ICU,” Bullock said. “With that, we can perform all ICU capabilities and procedures up in the aircraft.”
Sgt. AliceAnn Meyer, Burn Flight Team NCO in charge and respiratory therapist, said the team has the resources that enable them to provide care and treatment to patients en route to San Antonio.
“I think we’re really lucky that the tools we have from our research side and the equipment that we have gives us the capability to take care of just about any patient in the air,” Meyer said. “I don’t think we’ve met any roadblocks we haven’t been able to meet yet because of the tools that we have.”
Over the last 10 years, the Burn Flight Team has provided transport and treatment for more than 350 service members critically injured in Afghanistan and Iraq by participating in approximately 100 missions to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where the burn patients were being cared for.
Members of the flight team have also provided care for service members who have been injured outside of the battlefield, including last September when they treated four Marines who were critically burned when the amphibious assault vehicle they were in caught on fire during a training exercise at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
In December, the team was called out to pick up a Marine who was critically burned in an accident at home while on leave in Washington state.
The Burn Flight Team has been assigned to missions that involve government civilians, including an instance last year when they transported a U.S Department of State employee from Colombia.
In 2017, the team participated in 10 missions.
This year, the work of the Burn Flight Team has not let up. In February, the team traveled more than 9,850 miles to Singapore to treat and transport a patient on a 19-hour non-stop flight, setting a distance record for the team and surpassing the previous record by more than 3,000 miles.
“Our flight team motto is anytime, anywhere,” Bullock said. “We will be there anytime, we will be anywhere to bring that service member or family member the best care they can get.”
Besides serving on the flight team, Bullock and Meyer work in the intensive care unit at the USAISR Burn Center. They were selected by USAISR to serve on the flight team.
Bullock said there are instances when flight team members have worked long shifts at the burn center when they are notified of a mission they will go on.
“This is an extra duty we do,” she said. “I can work here four, 12-hour shifts in a row and I get told I have to be on a flight at 10 p.m. Sometimes I think that is the hardest, you’re tired and we are just going, going, going because we want to get that patient to USAISR as quickly and safely as we can.”
Meyer said flight team members and the burn surgeon, Maj. Julie Rizzo, Burn Flight Team director, come up with a plan to provide care for the patient being transported in flight. But she said team members need to be able to respond quickly if something happens to the patient during the flight.
“Everybody needs to just to be able to act,” Meyer said. “Like Capt. Bullock said, we are the only ones there. The doctor jumps in, the nurses and the respiratory therapist jump in. We all jump in immediately.”
Bullock said team members must work well together to provide care and treatment for the patient that is being transported.
“You need to have extreme competency in your job skill and the reason is you are the only resource up there,” Bullock said. “You have to be a real good team player willing to do the best for the patient.”