Two members of the Wyoming Air National Guard played a critical role in the first successful evacuation of a patient in cardiac arrest in Antarctica in more than 35 years.
Maj. Nate Krueger, a Wyoming Air National Guard flight nurse, and Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty, an aeromedical technician, are both members of the National Guard’s 187th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron who helped with the patient’s evacuation from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in February.
Glotfelty and Krueger led some of the efforts to stabilize and transport the patient.
“This was more than a mission — it was a life saved against all odds,” Brig. Gen. Michelle Mulberry, director of Joint Staff for the Wyoming National Guard, said in a statement. “What our Airmen and their teammates accomplished is extraordinary. The 187 AES embodied what it means to be Citizen-Airmen — bringing compassion and expert care to one of the most remote places on Earth.”
Krueger described the rescue to Cowboy State Daily as a great team outcome and effort, as well as a testament to the citizen’s duty aspect of the National Guard. A cardiology nurse at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, Krueger said he never expected to take part in an evacuation like this.
“A good tribute to the training that we get and work really hard to stay on top of,” Krueger said.
The Wyoming Air National Guard often sends members down to Antarctica to help with military operations at the bottom of the Earth.
Krueger said the incident response was truly remarkable because every step was executed with precision and urgency. It had to be, as Krueger confirmed to Cowboy State Daily there have been other cardiac arrests suffered at McMurdo that ended in death.
“It could’ve gone the other direction and nobody would’ve heard about it,” Krueger said. “It went this way and it’s awesome.”
How It Started
The patient, a 60-year old male U.S. civilian contractor with experience on more than 20 Operation Deep Freeze missions, suffered a massive heart attack while inside the galley cafeteria at McMurdo around 11 a.m. the day of the incident.
Thanks to an astute young cafeteria worker performing CPR on the man right away and alerting others to what was going on, medical professionals started responding to the man instantly.
An electrocardiogram showed the man as having a huge heart attack and they diagnosed a complete blockage of his left anterior descending artery.
Maj. Nathaniel Krueger, from left, Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty and Maj. Thomas Powell, MD, at the Phoenix Airfield in Antarctica. (Courtesy Photo) 
The McMurdo Clinic crew that was instrumental in saving the life of the patient: Danielle Morrison, from left, Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty, registered nurses Dan Baldwin and Shannon Sharrah, Maj. Nathaniel Krueger, Dr. Blake Montana, Maj. Thomas Powell, MD and USAF flight surgeon. (Courtesy Photo) 
Wyoming Air Guard Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty, right, and University of Texas flight nurse Dan Baldwin work on the patient mid-flight from Antartica. (Courtesy Photo) 
View from inside the plane looking toward where the patient is about to be loaded from an ambulance. Master Sgt. Lyndsey Glotfelty walks toward the EMS crewmen getting out of the ambulance. (Courtesy Photo) 
The New York National Guard LC-130 plane just before starting up its engines for the trip to Christchurch with the patient inside. Mount Erebus, an active volcano near McMurdo Station, can be seen in the background. (Courtesy Photo)
Not Your Average Rescue
Everything works a little differently in Antarctica due to the lack of infrastructure and harsh arctic climate. Krueger said the ambulances there have giant wheels, allowing them to travel across the icy tundra.
In addition, McMurdo is a clinic, not a hospital, so it lacks any surgical facilities, operating rooms or the ability to perform MRIs or cat-scans.
As a result, Krueger said medical staff have to become well-versed in a variety of services including lab and dental assistance, x-ray technician work, physical therapy and administrative duties.
“It really does rely on the jack–of-all-trades, masters of none kind of things,” Krueger said. “We learn to help each other out with all these things.”
First responders delivered multiple defibrillator shocks to the man on their way to the McMurdo station clinic.
Krueger said his more than a decade working in critical care and seeing patients in a similar circumstance made the situation look bleak when first arriving to help, but his and Glotfelty’s medical experience in the civilian world helped them mitigate the situation.
After nearly 40 minutes of intensive efforts, including performing CPR, epinephrine injections, eight defibrillation shocks, and administering clot-busting medication, the team stabilized the patient. Krueger said the clot-busting agent was particularly useful in clearing blood flow down to the patient’s artery.
After determining what the man needed next was 2,500 miles away, they began planning his immediate medical evacuation to New Zealand.
During the rescue, Krueger said they were also significantly helped by Maj. Thomas Powell, a McMurdo Station flight surgeon and one of only 12 pilot physicians in the Air Force.
They got the patient in the air to New Zealand in less than five hours after he suffered cardiac arrest, which Krueger considers an incredible feat when considering the remote nature of Antarctica.
Airbound
An older U.S. Air Force LC-130 provided by the New York Air National Guard flew the patient 2,500 miles to Christchurch, New Zealand on a seven-hour flight. Krueger compared the length of this trip to airlifting a patient from upstate New York to San Diego.
“That’s a long trip to be sitting there biting your nails,” Krueger said.
Remarkably, the weather was unusually calm and sunny that day.
Although the patient had become more stabilized for this stage of the evacuation, Krueger said their life was still potentially at risk, so his staff had to prepare for the worst enroute.
“It’s still riding on a knife’s edge,” he said. “Very fortunate it turned out the way it did because I’ve been in situations with other patients, and it went the other direction.”
Glotfelty, Powell and another nurse from Texas named Dan Baldwin accompanied the patient on the flight, while Krueger stayed back in Antarctica.
Upon arrival in New Zealand around midnight, the patient was rushed to a hospital catheterization lab where two cardiac stents were placed to reopen his arteries. The ordeal lasted about 12 hours from collapse to advanced cardiac care and ended with the patient walking out of the hospital a few days later.
“Very good ending to the story,” Krueger said.
What’s Antarctica Like?
The Air National Guard typically sends its members on seven-to-eight-week rotations on McMurdo. Glotfelty, a registered firefighter in her professional career and resident of Colorado, said most people only get the chance to go to Antarctica once in their careers, an opportunity highly sought out among guard members.
“You get a whole different mission set from what you would usually see,” she said.
Glotfelty said the sound of penguins, whales and orcas dominates the landscape she describes as a giant island surrounded by an ice shelf.
Even in the summer season when they were stationed there, Glotfelty said the temperature typically ranged from the teens to the low 20s. When the sun came out, she said it felt just like a typical Wyoming winter day.
“It’s extra dry and extraordinarily windy,” she said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
