Posted on 03/11/2004 5:48:33 PM PST by UncleHambone
WARLORDS perform first aid in air By LTj.g. Shaun Lynch HSL 51 Public Affairs
This past Friday the 13th started out no differently than any other day for nine crewmen from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 51 (HSL 51) as they departed NAF to attend training in San Diego.
What they couldn’t know was that, before the end of this most notorious day of the year, their spirit and military training would be put to the test.
Approximately three hours into their flight, Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class (AW1) Ed Lyon observed a Japanese citizen collapse while standing in the aisle of a Boeing 747.
"I heard him fall the first time, and then I saw him stagger shortly thereafter," said Lyon.
Realizing there was a problem, he shouted across the center row of seats to wake up AW2 Winnow Driscoll.
"I stood up and looked over to Lyon, wondering what he wanted, and the passenger just fell down right in front of me," Driscoll said.
This time the passenger’s head clipped a food cart as he fell.
Driscoll and Lyon immediately began performing first aid on the victim as he lay on the floor, unconscious and bleeding from the head.
They performed a head-to-toe sweep on the man to check for other injuries before moving him to a clear area of the plane.
Lyon requested medical kits from the flight attendants while Driscoll applied direct pressure to the wound using napkins.
Driscoll donned rubber gloves to perform a primary assessment and discovered a one-and-a-half-inch jagged laceration of the victim’s head that may have required sutures, a procedure that neither Sailor was qualified to perform.
LCDR Carol Haddock, a nurse assigned to U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka, also responded to provide assistance. She took his vitals and found his initial blood pressure to be very low.
After the victim regained consciousness, a flight attendant translated Driscoll’s questions into Japanese to obtain a possible cause for his condition, but found none.
For the next six hours to San Francisco, the makeshift Navy medical team placed the victim in an aisle seat and established a watch over him, taking his vitals every 30 minutes. Upon landing, paramedics boarded the plane and took charge of caring for the injured man.
The United Airlines flight crew commended the efforts of the three service members for effectively performing first aid on an injured and bleeding passenger, and quite possibly saving his life.
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