"Medic warriors" put the star in C-STARS Published Feb. 7, 2006 By Laura McGowan Aeronautical Systems Center Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFMCNS) -- There was no luck involved in the professional and expeditious medical treatment provided to critically-injured military personnel as well as that given to ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt. Instead, the care was a result of the training their Critical Care Air Transport Team of doctors and nurses were given at one of three Centers for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills programs. Under the Aeronautical Systems Center's Human Systems Wing, the Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute at Brooks City Base, Texas, was chartered in 2004 under the command of the U. S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine to manage the AFMS Readiness Skills Verification Program and the C-STARS training platforms. Since the transport of the injured ABC news crew Jan. 31, there has been interest in how the medical teams are trained. ASC public affairs facilitated an interview Wednesday with reporter Becky Freemal, WCPO-TV, Channel 9, ABC News affiliate, Cincinnati, and officials at the C-STARS facility at Cincinnati's University Hospital. The story ran on the 5 and 6 p.m. newscast Feb. 1. The reporter learned that the goal of C-STARS is to produce "warrior medics" who are ready to respond to any peacetime or wartime situation. During training, Air Force physicians, surgeons, nurses, medical technicians, other medical providers, and Special Forces personnel are exposed to adult surgical/trauma and neurological and burn intensive care units. They also experience hands-on treatment of simulated pediatric trauma patients, all of which afford them realistic experiences of caring for patients on the ground and during air evacuations. The other two C-STARS facilities are located in St. Louis and Baltimore. In addition to their training at University Hospital, trainees deploy with CCATT personnel in a full aeromedical evacuation response training module in conjunction with the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In preparation for the students' actual aeromedical training module, they receive applied trauma/critical care training in the expanded simulator lab. They get the full range of caring for "Stan" (short for Standard Man, human patient simulator) who they must "treat" in different emergency scenarios while also experiencing aircraft engine noise and other situations they might encounter during an actual in-flight ICU. "The audible and visual simulation CCATT provided here applies realistic pressure to the medics," said Col. Peter Muskat, director of the clinical training. "This technology allows us to mimic many of the conditions of the critical care emergencies in a reproducible fashion." Colonel Muskat went on to explain the specialized two-week training afforded to Air Force personnel assigned to the CCATT. "From the point of injury in theater to the time the injured person is medevac'd to the states, most times within 72 hours, they receive care from medics who have been exposed to every potential problem a trauma patient may face on the ground and during that flight," he said. "It is a great feeling of responsibility and a privilege to care for these patients," said Colonel Muskat, who has flown 15 missions from Balad, using the very skills the team in Cincinnati prepares other Air Force surgeons and nurses in during their training. Director of Trauma, Dr. Jay Johannigman, University Hospital, said "The sooner a severely injured patient can be transported to a large trauma facility, the better his or her chances of survival. "Since the C-STARS program opened up, in the last two and a half years, 190 medics were trained at the C-STARS in University Hospital, Cincinnati," he said. Three of the members of the CCATT team who treated the ABC news team on the C-17 flight from Germany to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., were medics who were trained at the C-STARS Cincinnati University Hospital facility. They were Maj. Linda Boyd, an emergency medicine physician, Maj. Denise Irizarry, nurse, and Master Sgt. Jeffrey Wahler, respiratory therapist-all with the 791st Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. They trained together in August 2005. Dr. Boyd said of her training, "It was awesome. Critical care nurses Capt. Mike McCarthy and Maj. Robert Peron taught us a lot. We did intubations and ventriculostomies (a procedure where a device is placed into the ventricles of the brain when needed to drain spinal fluid and relieve pressure)." She said she had never done that before, but since that invaluable training, she has now done 10 to 15 of the procedures. She and Master Sgt. Wahler are on their second CCATT tour from the U. S. Air Force Academy. Previously they were in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.