Rescue Pacific Shark Attack Victim

Reservists from the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron aided a shark-attack victim at Johnston Atoll June 22. Lt. Col. Nancy Byrne, a flight nurse, along with Master Sgts. Jeffery Streit and Brian Marquardt, aeromedical technicians, received the call to provide support. They were performing a week of medical-evacuation duty at Hickam Air Force Base (HI).

A 51-year-old contractor was snorkeling with a friend 50 yards from the atoll, more than 700 miles southwest of Honolulu, when a shark attacked him, Byrne said. The man lost his left leg in the attack.

After a two-and-one-half-hour flight aboard a Coast Guard aircraft, the reservists and two active-duty medics from Hickam arrived on the island to transport the man to Hawaii for treatment.

“It was our job to keep him stable during the flight back to Hickam,” Byrne said. “We administered pain medicine and blood transfusions (as) ordered by the physician.”

After arriving at Hickam, the victim was moved to a civilian medical facility. “The last time I checked on his medical condition from the attending physician, the man was doing well,” Byrne said.

Johnston Atoll is a military installation on a 2-mile-long island of coral. Most of the 327 people on the island are members of the US military. The victim was one of a few civilians there.

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