Medical evacuees continue to arrive in Oklahoma City

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Medical evacuees from the Gulf Coast region continued to fly into the Oklahoma Air National Guard Base in Oklahoma City in advance of Hurricane Rita. <br/><br/>The first wave of evacuees

Saturday, September 24th 2005, 12:05 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Medical evacuees from the Gulf Coast region continued to fly into the Oklahoma Air National Guard Base in Oklahoma City in advance of Hurricane Rita.

The first wave of evacuees arrived by plane at the Will Rogers Air National Guard Base about 8 p.m. Thursday.

Doctors, ambulance workers and support personnel worked until 6 a.m. doing triage, stabilizing patients and getting them loaded on ambulances for trips to local hospitals.

The list of Texas and Louisiana evacuees receiving help Thursday night included 90 patients, 24 family members and 35 evacuees, said Brent Kinsey, director of operations for the Emergency Medical Services Authority.

Kinsey said about 10:30 a.m. Friday emergency medical workers were told to expect another plane in 20 minutes.

Workers treated 18 more patients Friday morning, including several nursing home patients from the Beaumont, Texas area, officials said.

Richard Smith, who is coordinating the local disaster medical relief effort, said he was told to expect another plane loaded with 32 patients and some 300 evacuees, but at the last minute that plane was diverted to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Col. Ted Mickle, chief of aerospace medicine at Tinker Air Force Base, said aerial evacuations can be hard on critically ill patients because of the vibrations and changes in temperature and oxygen levels associated with flight.

``The real heroes are the flight nurses,'' he said, noting that most of the patients arrived in stable condition.

Maj. Vanchai Vongchanyakul, a physician's assistant with the 137th Air Guard Medical Group, said the sudden evacuation has been confusing to many of the patients.

``They're just wondering, 'Where am I?''' he said. ``Mostly, I just reassure them that they will soon be in an air-conditioned facility with regular meals and everything will get back to normal.''