Citation

Mueller MR, Suresh M, Rizzo JA, Cancio LC, Vanfosson CA. Am. J. Nurs. 2020; 120(2): 61-67.

Affiliation

Michael R. Mueller is a critical care nurse and the chief nurse of the U.S. Army Burn Flight Team at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR), Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, TX. Mithun Suresh is an internal medicine physician and researcher, Julie A. Rizzo is a burn/trauma surgeon and chief of the U.S. Army Burn Flight Team, Leopoldo C. Cancio is a burn/trauma surgeon and director of the USAISR Burn Center, and Christopher A. VanFosson is a critical care nurse and nurse scientist, all at the USAISR. The authors would like to acknowledge all members of the evacuation team. Contact author: Christopher A. VanFosson, christopher.a.vanfosson.mil@mail.mil. The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Nurses Association, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/01.NAJ.0000654344.19330.a4

PMID

31977424

Abstract

The Fuego volcano eruption near Guatemala City, Guatemala, on June 3, 2018, left more than 150 dead and hundreds more injured or missing. Local officials quickly identified a need for burn care among the injured and asked the international community for assistance. By the morning of June 4, members of the U.S. Army's Burn Flight Team were placed on high alert in preparation for an evacuation mission to bring injured Guatemalans to the United States for specialized burn care. The mission required seven RNs, three respiratory therapists, a burn surgeon, two intensivists, an anesthesiologist, and an operations officer in order to successfully evacuate six critically injured pediatric burn patients to the Shriners Hospitals for Children-Galveston in Galveston, Texas. This article describes details of each stage of the mission and includes a discussion of key aspects of logistics and patient care posed by such evacuations.

Language: en