News

Reservists share medical skills overseas

  • Published
  • By Capt. Jennifer Gerhardt
  • 446th Airlift Wing
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Six 446th Airlift Wing medical people traveled to Tunisia in April for a Joint Chiefs of Staff International Health Specialist tour, called MEDLITE 06, to enhance the Tunisian military’s medical training.
The 446th Aerospace Medicine Squadron and 446th Aeromedical Staging Squadron Airmen went to the cities of Tunis and Bizerte for a specific objective: enhance medical training, and the partnership and cooperation between our two countries’ medical services.
Maj. Robert Berg, Tech. Sgt. Carrie Barron, Master Sgt. Kenneth Bielas, and Maj. Howard Harvey from the 446th ASTS, and Col. Dennis Roberton and Master Sgt. Linda Barnhart from the 446th AMDS, were six of about 52 U.S. military people and 220 Tunisian military personnel participating in MEDLITE.
The 446th ASTS team provided hands-on training in CPR, advanced cardiac life support, advanced trauma life support, emergency medical technician training, and medical treatment of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives casualties.
The 446th AMDS team was part of the six-member hospital exchange team working with their specialist counterparts at the military hospital in Tunis.
“Our (the ASTS team) job is to enhance the continuing medical education for the Tunisian medical community with the most cur-rent U.S. medical research and techniques, not to treat patients,” said Major Berg, who served as the director and instructor of advanced cardiac life support. “The instructors are considered subject matter experts in their field. They will be teaching abbreviated components of ACLS (advance cardio life support), advanced trauma life support, pre-hospital trauma life support and emergency medical technician courses.”
Sergeant Barron taught pre-hospital trauma life support, while Sergeant Bielas and Major Harvey taught critical care air transportation.
“From a medical standpoint, we hope to greatly enhance the Tunisian military’s doctors’, nurses’, and paramedics’ continuing education in arenas the U.S. takes for granted,” said Major Berg. “All these classes we teach are required for our civilian and military jobs here and are easily available for us to take. However, we may be the singular resource in 2006 for the Tunisian military medical community to receive the latest life saving research and techniques.”
The 446th AMDS hospital team took their training tasks in a different direction.
Colonel Roberton and Sergeant Barnhart worked in the hospital dental clinic each day with a different dental specialist. The work included case reviews, consultations, and providing patient care. The patients were Tunisian military members, their dependents, and some civilians. Specialty care included prosthodontics, implantology, oral surgery, periodontics, and hospital operating room procedures.
“Communication was at times a challenge, but having the younger dental residents to translate worked well,” said Colonel Roberton. “The dental residents were in their sixth and final year of dental school and the specialists were military officers and professors at the Tunisian dental school. They were quite helpful and they enjoyed exchanging professional knowledge, clinical procedures and protocols of patient care.”
Overall, MEDLITE 06 was considered a success by the 446th AW Reservists.