Two Barksdale medics in the right place at the right time

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sarah Kusek
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  December 22 was a busy day for two Airmen assigned to the 2d Medical Group.
 
Both Maj. James Stigers, Public Health flight commander, and Lt. Col. Susan Bassett, 2 MDG Chief Nurse, were first responders in vehicle accidents on Dec. 22 in Texas and Kansas, respectively. 

Major Stigers and his wife, DeeDee, were traveling on Loop 1604 just east of San Antonio in the early morning after being considerably delayed with Dallas traffic to join their family in Falls City, Texas, for Christmas. 

"(My wife) saw a red taillight circle pattern in front of us and alerted me to stop, which fortunately I did quick enough to avoid the accident scene of a pick-up truck and minivan that collided head on, with smoke and steam rising," Major Stigers said. "I set our safety flashers, parked well back of the scene to warn others, and grabbed my light, Gore-Tex jacket and first-aid kit to help however I could." 

Major Stigers' wife then called 911 while he approached the collision to help the injured.
"In the minivan there was an elderly woman who was obviously dazed, but who was able to stand just outside the demolished van. She was coherent, with no visible bleeding or breathing problems. I looked inside the van to see her husband who was visibly trapped in the broken driver's seat pushed way back into the van, but he made no sound or response to my voice," he said. 

"I moved her as soon as she was willing, away from the truck to my wife's side for safety in case a fire erupted and continued care on her. She relayed to me her chest hurt, was having some difficulty walking, and had hypertension. I passed along to my wife all I knew and returned to the other vehicle, a truck with a young man laid out across the bench seat," Major Stigers explained. 

"His speech was slurred, he had no seat belt, and his generally sleepy response plus a smell of alcohol clued me to assess he was intoxicated. 

"Another vehicle driver came to help us by then, so I asked him to set his emergency lights first. The man attempted to extract the young man who was in considerable pain and unwilling to move his leg. I argued successfully to not pull the man out as the other driver was not a professional medic and we did not have a back board to support him or training to do this alone. 

"I supported the man's head and torso after wrapping his coat around him. The Texas State Trooper and a small county fire response crew arrived shortly, tending to the woman, assessed the van driver was non-responsive, and that his extrication would require more equipment. I held the young man steady and kept him talking, asked where he lived and where he was hurt to help the medic," the major recalled. 

Major Stigers and his wife felt fortunate to be able to help the survivors.
"There were no headlights warning us of the wreck, only her awareness and quick sense to stop," he said. "The van's driver, a 65 year-old man was killed, his wife traumatized, one young man's pelvis was broken and his life no-doubt altered regrettably forever. 

"Both my wife and I are very lucky and blessed to have avoided the accident as the minivan had passed us not three miles earlier. It easily could have been us in that pile-up," he said. 

Major Stigers also credited his military training in aiding him in helping during the accident response. 

"The first concern I had was about possible explosion or further injury to the victims," he said. "We acted quickly to warn other driver's and get the response services activated, which our training stresses as essential in major accidents or to help a non-responding patient." 

Colonel Bassett, who had just completed a two-month combat skills training at Ft. Riley, Kan., was heading to the Kansas City Airport along with about 20 Air Force medics when they unexpectedly got their first test of the skills they had just honed. 

The group was just outside of Topeka on Interstate 70 when the road began to be icy and the winds whipped into a whiteout-type blizzard. 

"I was actually on the cell phone with my daughter when I noticed a car up ahead swerve and hit the back of a semi-trailer in the other lane," the colonel recalled.
That was all it took to start spinning cars left and right all around the bus the medics were in. 

"We estimated that our bus was hit more than 30 times - mostly from the rear as cars kept piling into the wreckage. My daughter was standing in (a supermarket) hearing all the yelling and screams," she said. 

As soon as the Airmen felt it was safe, the non-medics on the bus gave the four nurses and medics their hats and gloves so they could attend to the injured out side the bus.
"We squeezed out of the door and each of us went a different direction. Our quickly devised plan was to move anyone we could into our bus and let the non-medics watch over them while we worked with the more seriously injured. 

"We also had to quickly round up dazed victims because they wandered into the ditches and fields - during a blizzard," Colonel Bassett explained. 

The nurse then made the treacherous crawl over broken windshields and sharp, twisted metal of crushed cars and leaking fluids of wreckage to reach victims. 

"I got myself to the head of the accident and 'set-up shop,'" she said. "The men would break windows and drag people out of cars and bring them to me. I found several intact cars and just kept piling people into them so that their combined body heat would keep them warm because we knew it would be hours before all the walking wounded could be rescued." 

After working the accident for more than four hours, Colonel Bassett returned to the bus, and being the ranking officer, she made arrangements for the group to move themselves and their gear back to Ft. Riley until they regrouped, got another bus and were able to go to the airport the next day. 

Looking back at the accident Colonel Bassett expressed that the training the group had just received to be an instrumental part in the success of the mass-casualty accident response. 

"I kept thinking that it was fortunate for the 150 or so casualties that there was a busload of medics trained for mass casualty responses stuck right there in the middle of the massive mess," she said. 

"The Army's Combat Lifesavers Course was especially helpful for the non-nurses. It prepared the Airmen for the awful sight of so much injury and confusion of the scene. The media relations course is what I found host helpful when CNN representatives came to interview us," the nurse said. "Who would have ever thought we would need our combat skills training before we even got out of Kansas!"