104th Fighter Wing Participates in Large Excercise at Logan Airport
104th Fighter Wing
/ Published June 29, 2017
WESTFIELD, Mass. -- The 104th Fighter Wing Medical Group sent a team of medics, flight surgeons and support personnel to participate in the largest joint triage event held at Logan International Airport on Thursday June 8.
The exercise organized by Veterans Affairs Boston helped participating organizations actually practice receiving patients from a mass casualty event, triaging them, and then sending those patients to area hospitals and tracking the patients. This is the first large scale exercise of its kind that VA Boston has organized.
“I’m very happy to have had the chance to see how all the pieces fit together,” said Airman 1st Class Daniela Harrison, a medic with the 104th MDG team.
The exercise gave medical personnel from three different wings a chance to integrate with their civilian counterparts and put to practice the procedures they would use in the event of a mass casualty.
The event was supported by a C-130 from the 109th Airlift Wing with the New York Air National Guard. After the C-130 landed members from both Massachusetts Air National Guard Wings and their civilian counterparts carried litters to the aircraft configured for patient transport and then loaded the litters into the C-130 with the assistance of the team from the 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. After actors playing patients were loaded into the plane medical personnel assisted or litter carried the patients into the terminal where personnel assessed them and simulated sending them to area hospitals.
"This was a great opportunity to coordinate with other healthcare agencies within the National Disaster Medical System, fostering partnerships and testing interoperability,” said Capt. Eric Sabatinelli, the Health Services Administrator for the 102nd MDG. “Participating in this level of training is crucial for the preparedness and overall patient movement success in the event of a natural disaster or large scale incident."