“We had a stressful night on the island!” That’s how Puerto Rico volunteer Jeremy Dougherty, NS0S, described a medical emergency on the island of Culebra in which Amateur Radio played a major role. Dougherty, a Force of 50 American Red Cross volunteer who is supporting communication at Culebra Hospital, said fumes from a gasoline fuel container ignited last evening (October 12), seriously injuring a woman who needed immediate help. Dougherty was unable to raise any of the other volunteers in San Juan — likely because of the late hour — but the only doctor at the hospital at the time called Centro de Medico (Medical Central) on a satellite phone to coordinate transportation for the patient. The only other after-hours staff was a nurse.
“This patient was far from being within our scope to treat at this facility,” Dougherty said. “The patient had burns to at least 30% of her body. I had to do a lot of medical work here. The nurse knew the patient — this is a small community — and she left to get belongings from the [burn victim’s] house.” That left Dougherty — a medic who works for the Kansas City (Missouri) Fire Department — to administer first aid.
“I carried out all of the orders the doctor gave me. We cut off a lot of skin. We wrapped her burns,” he recounted. “We got an IV and started IV antibiotics and fluids. I also checked the vitals pretty constantly.”
Helicopter transport to San Juan was arranged for the patient, who was in critical condition, in shock, and shivering; Dougherty said he donated his blanket. He then was tasked with contacting the patient’s family
At around 0200 UTC, Dougherty got on 40 meters, interrupting a pileup of stations trying to work special event station N4F, which was being run at the time by Kevin Young, KC7FPF, in Bronson, Florida.
“I did not get into specifics. But, I did give him the first name of the patient, the first name of the relative with the phone number, and the facility she was being taken to,” Dougherty said. “I explained my location and our limited resources. No phones, no internet, no power.” He told Young that the victim had suffered burns from a gasoline explosion and was in critical condition.
“We had complete radio silence while we were passing traffic,” Dougherty said. “We were literally passing traffic as the helicopter flew overhead.” KC7FPF told ARRL he was able to contact the family and relay the news.
“I heard a station calling asking for a break among the pileup,” Young said. “I could tell this was different than the rest…I instructed all stations to stand by and let me reply.”
Young said copy was poor with an increasing noise level, but he was able to pull out NS0S, get the message, and pass along the news to the family in Connecticut. He said he’d remain available if any further help was needed.
The woman was transferred from Culebra to the burn unit at Centro de Medico. Using WinLink2 e-mail, Dougherty asked the American Red Cross Amateur Radio volunteers in San Juan to reach out to a friend of the victim to explain the situation and her status.
Dougherty said he successfully passed the information to notify the patient’s family, noting Young’s extreme patience as they attempted to send call signs and messages hampered by poor conditions. “He definitely stepped up to the challenge of the unexpected emergency and handled it quite well,” Dougherty said. “Someone needs to pin a medal on his chest.”
Dougherty said he was able to get the hospital’s HF antenna back up the previous evening, with help from local firefighters.
Source:ARRL.ORG
Antenna
Building a Multi-Band Dipole
Multi-Band Dipole I built a multiband dipole that will work 40, 20, 17, and 10 meters for ham radio. An easy project I was able to tackle in one day.... Read more
Antenna beam 2 elements 80m (Monobander)
Frequency: (3,500 MHz – 3,830 MHz) Number of elements per band: 2 Gain [dBd]: 3.9 Front-back ratio [dB]: 18 A switching system that enables oper... Read more
Building Buddipole Yagis – A Practical Demonstration
Building Buddipole Yagis – A practical demonstration by ZL4PLM using standard Buddipole parts. Read more
I Found & Eliminated My QRM / RFI (Radio Frequency Interference)!
This is the third in a series of videos following my efforts to track down a source of local QRM / Radio Interference. Following the build of a succes... Read more
VHF
Getting started on Ham Radio 2M FM BY K7AGE
In this series of Ham Radio videos, I’ll show you how to program a 2M HT to get on the air along with some of the basics of 2M FM operating.. In... Read more
RatPak VHF – Six antenna 1 kW remote switch for 2 meters VHF band without controller, N-type connectors
The Array Solutions RATPAK System – Remote VHF Antenna Switch Features Six antennas to one feed line All Aluminum WX proof and RF proof construc... Read more
Baofeng BF-UVB2 Plus VHF UHF Dual Band Two Way Radio Walkie Talkie
Baofeng BF-UVB2 Plus Two-way Radio Handheld Walkie Talkie VHF/ UHF DUAL-BAND TWO WAY RADIO . Dual-band handheld transceiver with display func... Read more
Open Source Satellite Work Determined to be Free of ITAR
The United States Department of State has ruled favorably on Open ResearchInstitute’s commodity jurisdiction request, finding that specified?Inf... Read more
Review
Rejecting Urban Radio Interference (RF) Noise
A viewer asks: Is there a particular polarization for general urban/suburban RF Noise. Dave, Joe, and I talk about some options and antennas that seem... Read more
Icom IC-7300 – SWR Graph
“Using the Icom 7300 I measure the SWR across much of the phone portion of 10,15 and 20 meters. You can use the bandscope to determine if it... Read more
Icom IC-7851 vs Kenwood TS-990
Icom IC-7851 vs Kenwood TS-990 Read more
Equipment
TR 144 – PRO, Transverter for the 2m band
Over 25 years of experience in development of new transverter technologies led to this masterpiece of VHF technology. Implementing technological innov... Read more
ICOM IC-PW1 Linear Amplifier
ICOM IC-PW1 Linear Amplifiers offer the power you need to succeed! Wide-frequency coverage with 1 kW output, a built-in automatic antenna tuner, and a... Read more
Newly released pictures of the new FTDX10 SDR
Newly released pictures of the new FTDX10 SDR Read more
X-Series Signal Analyzers – UXA Signal Analyzer, 3 Hz to 50 GHz
X-Series Signal Analyzers See the real performance of your design with wider (to 1 GHz), deeper views of the most challenging signals Measure the spec... Read more