Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Eshleman | 240613-N-EV253-1010 SAN DIEGO, Calif. (June 13, 2024) – U.S. Naval Aircrewman...... read more read more
SAN DIEGO – U.S. Naval Aircrewman (Helicopter) 2nd Class Jarett Ollier, a Temecula, California native assigned to the “Merlins” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 3, and Aircrewman (Helicopter) 2nd Class Coleman Krallis, a Sandy, Utah native and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) instructor assigned to the Center for Security Forces (CENSECFOR) Detachment, North Island, assisted a motorcycle accident victim involved in a vehicle collision on June 1, 2024 in Alpine, California.
Krallis and Ollier were in an off-duty status on a weekend and driving through the mountains of Alpine when they arrived upon a stopped car in the middle of the road. As they approached and pulled around the car, they noticed an overturned motorcycle and someone lying on the ground. They immediately pulled over to assess the situation.
“I was definitely caught off guard,” said Ollier. “When we drove past before ultimately pulling over, I saw someone on the ground. I didn’t expect her injuries to be anywhere near the degree that they were. After briefly absorbing the initial shock of what I was seeing for the first time, my training that has been drilled into me throughout the years kicked in, and I just started going step by step.”
The pair approached the scene, and Krallis asked the small gathering of onlookers that had just begun to form if emergency services had been called while Ollier assessed the survivor. When he discovered that no emergency calls had been made, Krallis called 911 and relayed the situation to the operator, who connected him to the paramedics.
“It was intense to kind of say the least,” said Krallis. “I did not feel nervous, but more of an adrenaline rush feeling. I felt prepared as in I knew what to do, but unprepared when it came to the equipment that we had on us. During our actual job, we have a fully equipped med bag with everything we would have needed for something like this.”
While Krallis spoke with paramedics, providing them with real-time updates on the injured rider’s condition, Ollier immediately began to render first aid to the injured rider.
“Throughout our whole training pipeline,” said Ollier, referring to the medical training he received specifically for his job as an aircrewman, “whether it’s in the water, in the aircraft or for any kind of scenario that care is necessary, there’s the medical capabilities you are supposed to have. However, in some scenarios, if you don’t have those capabilities, you have to utilize what you can and just think outside the box and get it done.”
In order to stop the rider’s bleeding, Ollier improvised a tourniquet by using the patient’s belt. The pair were careful to keep the patient lying flat and still, keeping the helmet on to prevent further injury to the head and neck. Once Krallis completed the 911 call, he joined Ollier with the patient.
“One of the lessons we teach at SERE is improvised remote medicine,” said Krallis. “This is being able to actually provide medical attention when you don’t have all the necessary medical equipment ready. You’re not always going to have a Hospital Corpsman with you, you’re not always going to have a giant level “A” med kit that’s the size of a backpack strapped to your back. One of my favorites sayings is ‘necessity is the mother of all invention,’ so once you find out that you need something, it’s just a matter of utilizing your imagination to adapt what you have to that situation.”
The pair fashioned a splint out of wooden stakes and elastic wrap found on the scene and applied it to the patient’s fractures when a Sheriff arrived. Once the splints were secure, they continued to treat for shock, and shortly after, they heard the Fire-EMT’s arriving. After receiving and placing a tourniquet from the responders to properly address the patient’s bleeding, Krallis and Ollier passed on control of the scene to the EMTs, successfully placing the patient into the necessary higher level of care.
“It definitely gives you some pride,” said Krallis. “I was able to utilize my training in this in order to ultimately help somebody. It’s a different mentality you have, out in the civilian world. Whenever you go into the aircraft, you know, ‘hey, there’s a potential we could have a risk.’ We brief everything that we’re going to do, we brief on how we’re going to do it, but that kind of mentality…you’re just out there for a Sunday drive and then everything just switches and rotates into ‘okay, this is a mission now, we’ve got to help this person.’”
“We are constantly reminded in our community that our best day is someone else’s worst day,” echoed Ollier. “So with that in mind, I feel like everybody as a community will go into this kind of situation with the mindset that we just need to get it done.”
HSC-3 is the Navy’s West Coast MH-60S Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), responsible for training pilots and aircrewmen by providing the most capable warfighters to the Fleet.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.19.2024 14:28 |
| Story ID: | 474343 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | SANDY, UTAH, US |
| Hometown: | TEMECULA, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 993 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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