Page 30 - Laker Connection Fall 2010

Clayton State University School of Nursing alumnus Jeff Wilson has been a United States Air Force reservist for 17 years and has participated in mis- sions all over the world, but his latest was his most difficult and likely, his most rewarding.
Wilson, who is the education pro- gram manager at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, was part of the U.S. Armed Services Operation United Response, the relief effort in response to the dev- astating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti on Jan. 12.
A captain with the title of flight nurse, Wilson is a member of the 94th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron that recently served in Iraq before its chal- lenging mission to Haiti.
With just five hours to prepare and pack, Wilson was on his way to Haiti and was joined by a crew of four other medical professionals in an Air Force C-130. Their mission was to pick up three patients and treat them 30,000 feet in the air in the plane’s cargo bay on their flight to Florida hospitals.
When the crew arrived in Haiti, 26 patients were waiting.
“I’ve been on many missions, but this was the most difficult of my career,” said Wilson. “The injuries were exten- sive. There were skull fractures, spinal cord injuries, amputees and burns. We also had in our care one-week-old twins, born 10 weeks premature. All this was exacerbated by the stress of
the flight to the patients. The vibrations, sound, humidity and altitude all played a factor.”
To make things even more difficult, Wilson says, “No one spoke English, only French and Haitian Creole. Com- municating was a real challenge.”
Lt. Col. David E. Rodberg, the medical crew director for the 94th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, echoed Wilson’s comments on the dif- ficulty of the mission.
“This particular Aeromedical Evac- uation (AE), spanning the evening of Jan. 22 to the morning of Jan. 23, was one of the largest and most compli- cated ever flown in a C-130. It was the most complex AE that I’ve ever done.
“Unlike in a combat situation with standard gunshot wounds and blast in- juries, we were dealing with crush in- juries. On this flight we had depressed-skull fractures, burns, spinal cord injuries, amputations, not to men- tion neo-natal care.”
The transport and care of the pre- mature twins was one of the miracles of the mission. Before being transported by the C-130 to a hospital in Miami, Fl., the 10-week premature twins had been in a make-shift hospital in Port-Au-Prince. There they had to be resuscitated and were in suitcase-type contraptions being used as make-shift incubators.
A doctor at the make-shift hospital said, “Yes, I really think it was a miracle that they lived that long. We have ba-
bies who are born 10-weeks prema- turely under optimal circumstances in hospitals in the U.S. and even then, we have a really difficult time treating them and keeping them well. These babies sur- vived just on water for eight days, and they were literally living in the rubble.”
Six hours after the first patient was brought on board the plane in Haiti, four critical-care patients were off loaded at Miami International Airport to awaiting emergency medical teams. The rest of the patients were flown to Fort Lauderdale.
“Probably this flight saved their lives,” said Dr. Maggie Brewinski, a pe- diatrician with the U.S. Agency for In- ternational Development, referring to the two infant patients. “I doubt they would have survived.”
“It was a difficult mission,” said Wil- son. “There was a lot going on, on the ground and up in the air, but we re- mained calm and got these people the care they needed.”
As a Haitian woman was being helped down the aircraft ramp she turned toward the crew. “Thank you,” she said. “You are angels.”
Wilson is a 2002 graduate of Clay- ton State with a B.S.N. degree. He and his wife, Anne-Marie, live in Jonesboro, Ga., and have three children: Jade, 15; Megan, 6; and Pierson, 2. Wilson was the recipient of the 2008 Clayton State Alumni Association School of Nursing Outstanding Alumnus Award.
28 THE LAKER CONNECTION
Jeff Wilson
A helping hand in Haiti
By Gid Rowell
alumni profile