D-M medical team returns from Peru

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Melissa Copeland
  • 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Members of the Desert Lightning team recently returned after conducting a two-week medical readiness event in Cajamarca, Peru.

Thirteen medical professionals from the 355th Medical Group participated in the exercise to provide medical service to the local nationals, as well as to train for real-world deployment scenarios.

In addition to the D-M members, the team included Airmen from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., Dyess Air Force Base, Texas and administrative professionals from 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern), the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group and the Ministry of Defense from Peru.

"The purpose of a MEDRETE is to train personnel to deploy to rural austere environments and provide medical care," said Capt. Erin Lagen, 355th Aerospace Medicine Squadron medical readiness flight commander and team lead. "We provided medical care to more than 4,400 patients that cannot afford healthcare," she said.

Maj. Theresa Goodman, 355th AMDS flight surgeon and lead provider for the MEDRETE added, "For the members of the team, it is a chance to go through deployment planning, deployment review and mobilization."

She continued, "It is a chance for us to practice deploying and gain familiarization with deploying and providing medical care under varying conditions."

The team consisted of two general practice physicians, one obstetrics/gynecologist physician, one OB/GYN nurse practitioner, a pediatric nurse practitioner, optometrist, dentist, a Medical Service Corp professional, two medical technicians, two dental assistants, one optometry assistant and one nurse.

During the two-week period, 10 days were spent treating patients in the local communities.

"For the cities that we assist, we provide free medical, dental, optometry services and medications to communities in need," Major Goodman said.

Despite a few challenges in the beginning, the medical team was victorious in accomplishing their mission.

"We did not receive our medication until day four of the mission and we did not receive our equipment at all during the mission due to custom's issues," said Captain Lagen. "However, we used this to our advantage to get very creative on how we did patient care," she said.

The medical readiness exercise proved successful and the feedback gathered will be used to plan future exercises.

"In general, this is a tremendous opportunity for medical personnel to exercise their deployment medical skills over a brief time period," said Major Goodman.

"Additionally, the opportunity to serve these areas in need provides a tremendous job satisfaction and helps to show our medical people the vast opportunities that exist in today's military," she said.

Captain Lagen also added, "These missions are incredible opportunities for our medical folks to interact with other countries and provide medical care to those who are less fortunate. I know the people really appreciated what we were able to do for them!"

This was the first planned by D-M in the last two years. There are more than 30 MEDRETE exercises planned for 2008.