LC-130s arrive...we plan

The LC-130s arrived today. They base out of Williams (Willy) Field which is near Scott Base. We find out that we will depart for Davis camp tomorrow. The medical team met up at 1300 for a planning meeting. The first order of business if for everyone to discuss the patient and decide what our course of action will be. There are a lot of strong personalities in this room, I think we all recognize this and are doing a good job listening to everyone and weighing the options. As I mentioned before, we all seem to meld together as if we’ve worked together before. The physicians discussed the different options for pain control and anticoagulation therapy during transport. They throw around several ideas but no decisions are made just yet. We all agree that we need to discuss things with the physician at Davis Camp and assess the patient. Jennifer and I decided early on that we need to stay in the background and coordinate the mission execution. Our job will be to ensure the team has what they need as far as electrical, oxygen and equipment. I briefed the team on the aircraft configuration and what to expect. Where the patient will be, where the equipment will be. How we’ll provide oxygen and electricity. Jen and I will be at the aircraft before the patient to ensure everything is ready. Our next job is to sort our equipment and supplies. In all the commotion of planning and to ensure that we had everything we needed I requested a full AE equipment and supply package. This package will support up to 25 patients, there was talk early on that we may have more patients from other stations around Davis. This was my way of ensuring that we definitely had what we needed. In addition, we were not told what the JMATT would bring. The JMATT brought their equipment and supplies, not really knowing that the AE equipment and supplies were coming and the Aussie team was surprised to see their equipment and supplies arrive in Christchurch. Our goal now was to reduce the amount of equipment and supplies. The distance we were covering and the altitude restrictions where going to suck up fuel so we needed to reduce the weight as much as possible. The JMATT team had to bring their equipment and supplies because they had to take it back with them to Hawaii. They are not returning to McMurdo so their equipment goes. The Aussie team had to bring their equipment because they were not returning to McMurdo either. The JMATT briefed everyone on what they had; the Aussies briefed everyone on what they had. It was decided the AE supplies would stay at McMurdo but we would pull from it in order to ensure we had everything we needed. We decided we would use all of the JMATT supply and equipment as our first choice since the Aussie equipment was not approved on our aircraft. If we needed to use their equipment we would use it on battery power. We also decided to use the AE equipment as primary and bring the JMATT equipment for back up purposes. Oxygen would be supplied via H-Tanks and electrical will be from the AE Frequency Converter. We had it narrowed down but we were still going to be heavy. Logistically, we were going to have to off-load everything at Davis Camp because of the freezing temperatures. All this time, prior to the JMATT/Aussie Teams arrival Greg, Jen and I had been planning for these logistical hurdles. Yes, although I’ve mentioned the possibility of our mission, we have known all along that we would go. All of our research on the Evac-U-Splint, the Hagglunds etc was for the purpose of this mission. Our equipment and supplies are prepared. It came to a grand total of 1,400 lbs, we are prepared to go. Now we wait for the weather to clear at Davis Camp.

I am not feeling well…I’m run down and need sleep. I’m hoping I don’t get sick.