Most of SEAL Team Four’s Hotel platoon arrived at the airfield in Trujillo, Honduras, at 1200 on 11 May 1995. By 1300, all platoon equipment had been offloaded and the C-27 had departed for its return flight to Panama. Everything was going as planned and the platoon was awaiting transportation to the Honduran naval base at Puerto Castillo.
At about 1330, a platoon member standing watch on the tarmac spotted a small, single-engine aircraft flying near the airport. As he watched, the plane stalled and dove several hundred feet into the sand of a nearby beach. Members of the platoon rushed to the crash site to render assistance.
When they arrived, one of the two survivors already had been pulled from the plane and was being driven away in a civilian pick-up truck. The SEALs helped free the second man from the wreckage and moved him to the bed of another pick-up truck, where they were able to stabilize him and assess his condition.
The victim was a young Honduran man about 20 years old. His left foot was almost completely severed and his face was crushed over the left eye. His skull was open in various places, and his left eye was missing (it had been pushed into his forehead). The man’s breathing was rapid, deep, and slightly labored, his pulse was shallow and rapid, and he definitely was in shock.
Once the platoon commander determined that the young man’s breathing and pulse were satisfactory, that he had no major bleeding, and that his spine and neck were intact, he focused on the facial injury. Concerned about contamination because of the water and sand from the beach, he and another platoon member placed the victim on his side, to allow the wounds to drain and to prevent seepage of blood into the head or down the airway. The victim was alternately delirious and unconscious, though he did put his arm under his head when he was rolled onto his side, indicating some degree of brain function.
At the hospital, the lieutenant and platoon leading petty officer and several locals carried the man in. It quickly became apparent that the hospital workers were not prepared for such a trauma case. It took several nurses to muster together IV equipment. With the SEALs holding down the victim, who was beginning to writhe and resist treatment, two nurses administered IVs and started valium in one of them. A Honduran doctor arrived who was calm and steady but who didn’t seem confident dealing with such trauma. The platoon commander told the doctor that he had a SEAL corpsman, trained in trauma medicine, arriving within a few hours who could assist him. The doctor agreed that would be a good idea. At about 1420 the two SEALs left the hospital, knowing that they had done all they could until their corpsman arrived.
After rejoining the rest of the platoon at the airfield, the platoon leader and petty officer boarded a truck with the remainder of the platoon and some Honduran Navy Special Forces for the trip to the naval base. Just a mile down the road they were stopped by nurse driving a small pickup. She was looking for type A+ blood donors to assist the crash victims. Two platoon members and several of the Honduran forces were type A+, so the truck diverted to the hospital.
Back at the hospital the platoon commander met with an English-speaking doctor and discussed the situation. The SEAL noted that he thought the victim would die if not medevaced quickly to Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capitol, and better medical care. He told the doctor about his corpsman’s trauma capabilities and offered his assistance on a medevac flight. The doctor accepted the offer.
The platoon commander returned to the hotel to meet the corpsman, and they and another SEAL drove to the hospital. As soon as they arrived they went straight to the victim, who had just come out of surgery. His condition had worsened; the corpsman went straight to work. Taking control of the emergency room, the corpsman began issuing instructions. Because the hospital’s equipment was substandard, he sent the lieutenant back to the naval base to retrieve additional medical gear.
Several locals, including the victim’s aunt, were working to arrange a medevac flight to the capital. The patient’s vital signs were weakening and his breathing had become very labored. Once the plane was standing by, the medical team was notified. The aircraft had to fly in daylight; at 1715 the platoon commander told the corpsman that it was “now or never” for the medevac. They quickly moved the victim to the airfield while the corpsman continued treatment on the run. The corpsman and one other platoon member loaded the victim on the plane and prepped him for the flight.
The corpsman continued to care for the young Honduran throughout the flight. Upon arrival at Tegucigalpa, the SEALs transferred the patient to a stretcher and turned him over to awaiting emergency room physicians.
The SEALs lost touch with their patient after returning to Puerto Castillo, but they later found out that he had gone into a coma for nine days. He was able to keep his left foot but can’t yet walk on it. Doctors were able to save his damaged eye, and he is able to see light/dark and general shapes with it.
If it were not for the expert medical treatment and professionalism of the SEAL corpsman and assistance by the other platoon members, the young man probably would not have made it to Tegucigalpa alive. SEAL corpsmen spend more than a year in intensive medical training, including a specialized trauma course. As this case proves, their training holds up in real life.