Soldiers from 557th Medical Company Area Support, currently attached to the 11th Missile Defense Battery (Forward), provided Remote Damage Control Resuscitation, better known as the "Walking Blood Bank" training, to the medics of 5-7 Air Defense Artillery on May 1 in Baumholder, Germany.
Operating on a mountaintop in Turkey, the 557th MCAS Soldiers run and control a small aid station providing routine, urgent and emergent care to assigned U.S. Army personnel, and emergency care to Turkish Air Force personnel and U.S. civilians.
Tactical Combat Casualty Care recommends fluid resuscitation for patients suffering from massive hemorrhage and those guidelines begin with whole blood. With the nearest host nation hospital facility more than one hour away, Soldiers with the 557th MCAS developed protocols, standard operating procedures to meet the challenges of caring for patients with trauma injuries resulting in massive bleeding.
After months of hands on RDCR training Soldiers from the 557th MCAS validated their SOPs and protocols. Beyond the technical expertise, the RDCR training and validation integrated Soldiers from the 569th Human Resources Company receiving administrative support helping to prevent errors, thereby increasing patient safety.
The 557th Soldiers, eager to share their knowledge and newfound acumen, developed a plan to pass on their expertise to other medics and providers.
This was not to be your standard training session, where instructors and students interact in person; with the instructors in one country and students in another, the team leveraged an existing platform used on their mountain: Virtual Health.
With a designated Virtual Exam Room, the instructors could connect with the 5-7 ADA Soldiers using Video Teleconference capabilities. For 90 minutes, the team presented comprehensive material, demonstrated the techniques on blood donors and recipients, the RDCR validation process and fielded questions from participants.
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