Contract-Based Training: Bolster Survivability. Increase Rate of Situational Awareness.

I just wanted to extend my gratitude to the DDQC staff for all the previous training provided. I am a former Agency employee and multiple time DDQC student. Thankfully, I never needed the training in the field, but it did serve itself well. Almost exactly a year ago, a colleague at another Agency had a health event and rendered unconscious, with little or no pulse. A young man and I were the only two who felt confident to immediately start chest compressions/rescue breathing about 30 minutes until a defibrillator was retrieved, we continued for another 15 minutes until the County Rescue Squad was cleared to enter the secured area. A minor consolation, we were able to hand the colleague off to the Rescue Squad with a faint pulse. The colleague unfortunately passed away the next day, but the family was able to say goodbye. I am almost certain the colleague would have passed away on the floor of the office were it not for the airman’s lifeguard training and the training I received at DDQC.

It is Kimberly checking in from Kabul, AFG. I pray my note finds you and the rest of the fantastic instructors there well. All is well with me.

You may remember me from one of your DDQC training classes in July 2019. I am a 1st time deplorer, a tad squeamish at the mention of most things medical, and while I am a seasoned Executive Assistant, I have no prior military experience. In short, you all had your hands full getting me ready for deployment! For a week, I sat on the edge of my seat trying to absorb all I could from the experienced team.

Well, before I was finished with the DDQC training (I had moved on to the administrative portion upstairs), I got a call one afternoon from my daughter. I was on my way home from training and she was on her way home from debate camp in downtown DC with her debate coach, Mr. D. He and his family are close family friends; he is like an uncle to her. Well, Mr. D had apparently passed out behind the wheel of his car while driving my 12 year old daughter and his 3 children ages 13, 11 & 8 home from camp.

I could hear the urgency and fear in her voice yet she remained calm as she told me their location in details, explained that Jaina was talking to OnStar in the car and asked me what to do.

A week out of DDQC training, I started recalling my lessons in trauma response...giving her the steps to check his airways, check responsiveness, check for blood (an injury). At one point I guided her through tilting his head, clearing his passages, checking for pulse and giving him a forehead then a sternum rub. She screams, ‘his eyes fluttered’...he woke for a second. I can hear over the phone, Khadi and Jaina continuously calling him, they are patting his cheeks, rubbing his sternum. They tell me that he seemed to gain consciousness a few times. In minutes if not seconds, Capitol Hill police arrived and took over.

After spending a week in Washington Hospital Center (3 days in ICU); treated for a heart attack and multiple seizures due to acute, untreated Lyme's disease, Mr. D was released with pacemaker and intravenous antibiotics. He is still recuperating and showing signs of all of his cognitive and neurological abilities being intact.

The doctors and first responders are lauding the quick actions of the children in the moments before help arrived and their calmness in relaying pertinent information to the 1st responders as being key in Mr. D's recovery to full health.

DC EMS public affairs informed my family yesterday that they are honoring the children for their heroic life-saving quick actions at a ceremony in October 2019, in Washington, DC.

When recounting the details, my daughter says, "I didn't know what to do ... but I remember my mom said from her training the instructors emphasized, "Do Something Fast!"

I wanted to share with you how vital the DDQC training is. How it can be critical knowledge not just for deployers but also for average citizens. How it can be essential in saving lives!

Thank you for reading my long story. I am overwhelmed with emotion.

 

All the best to you and the other DDQC instructors whose names escape me now; efforts will forever be etched in my family's hearts.”

I wanted to thank you again for the instruction I received during the medical portion of DDQC last summer before I deployed to AFG. Additionally, I wanted to take a moment to share a quick example of how I used that training during DDQC in a recent medical emergency I was involved.

After returning home from my deployment in December 2018, my wife and I were in a local store buying some Christmas gifts for family when suddenly I heard a loud bang. I responded with a likely duck and cover, due to the nature of the sound and move to the location of the sound as I heard my wife asking someone were they “ok.” Once I arrived to the location, I found my wife next to an unconscious woman lying face up on the store floor. After assessing the location’s surroundings, I had the employee call 911 and I proceeded to check for airway and pulse. After determining, the woman was breathing normally, and had a stable pulse, I continued to attempt verbal and physical response while continually checking for breathing and pulse. Additionally, after questioning a nearby boy, I found out that he was her son and was likely going into shock.  Therefore, I questioned the boy about her, which resulted in the location of a medical bracelet.  From the description of the medical bracelet, assessing in her regaining conscious was the primary effort if breathing and pulse was normal. I conducted a sternum rub, which the woman responded to and slowly regained consciousness. Shortly after, EMS and Firefighters arrived; I explained the event to EMS and they took the woman and son to the hospital. 

I wanted to take a moment to explain this event, because most of the training, I received during DDQC, I used during this medical emergency. Although, I did not use the training while deployed, I did use it immediately after returning home.

Thank you again for the training I received.

I would like to extend my thanks and recognize my appreciation, to the DDQC training team. I have been with the Agency, military, and civilian employee, since 1995. Moreover, as such, have been to almost 100 different training courses and two dozen military exercises. I found the DDQC class to be one of the best classes I have taken, bar none. Every instructor was knowledgeable and engaging. I felt I took something useful away from every block of instruction and that I will be better ready for deployment because of it. I also had a special case in that I was on a short notice schedule. I had exactly three weeks in which to do the three weeks of training. This left me no extra time to coordinate with the folks who will be covering for me in Charlottesville- where I am in a deep position. The instructors, and Tim, worked extra with me and helped me to compress my final day of training so that after completion, I could drive the three hours to Charlottesville and meet with the four people who will take turns going TDY to be my back up. It was the only day could be done and Tim’s staff made it possible without lessening the impact of my training. This type of dedication to the mission well represents The Agency and its interests.

I wanted to share with you a story of how training from DDQC helped me make a difference in a man’s life this past weekend in Waikiki. Around 9pm on Sunday, I was in the passenger seat of a car traveling down Kalakaua Ave., Waikiki’s main boulevard. We stopped at a red light when I noticed a man lying on the sidewalk to my right, with a bicycle a few feet away, and a helmet laying on the ground next to him. A small crowd was milling around him, but no one was touching the man or administering any aid. It was clear the accident just happened. I looked at the man and saw his head was limp and laying on the ground at a strange angle, indicating he was unconscious. I rolled down the window and asked the people nearby if they needed me to call 911. No one gave much of a response or moved to take any action. I asked the driver of the car I was in if he knew first aid. He said, he did not. I suddenly realized that I did.

Last year, I took the Agency’s Deployment Qualifications Course (DDQC) in Maryland. My favorite portion of the course had been the medical training and realistic mass casualty scenario. I realized it was time to put that training to use and jumped of the car. As I came around the front of the man, I realized why the people around him looked so afraid and did not want to touch him. His head was surrounded by a pool of blood. He had a bad injury to the side of his head, his mouth and teeth. I asked who had seen what happened and a man offered up that the cyclist had swerved to avoid a car, hit the curb at a high speed and catapulted off the bike head-first into the pavement. Remembering my training, I elevated the man’s head so his spine was in alignment, enlisted the help of two onlookers to bend his knees into the “recovery” position and hold his arms down so he would not injure himself further. Each time the man regained consciousness, he seemed to realize what had happened, began yelling and thrashing, and reaching into his mouth to feel for his teeth. At one point, he tried to pull one out.  I feared he might choke on the blood filling his nose and mouth as he began coughing up large clots of blood. I held his head in my arms and spoke to him to ensure he remained conscious.  He couldn’t speak, so I took out his wallet and saw the first item inside was a military ID. He was a retired Navy O5. I addressed him by his name, assured him I would stay with him until the paramedics arrived, and that he would be all right. He made eye contact with me and began to calm down. 

When the paramedics arrived, I gave them a succinct rundown of the situation and the retired commander’s injuries just as I had learned in DDQC. I helped the paramedics place him onto the stretcher and they whisked him away to the hospital. In the moments afterward, I was so relieved to have remembered my training and remained calm when it counted. I realized that the people who had been just standing by had not been able to do anything because they did not know how, and they did not want to touch the man’s blood.  

I did not think this would be something I would ever have to use in real life, but I am so glad, I pulled up at the right light when I did. My training from DDQC gave me the ability to assess the situation, take control and remain calm. The situation was so similar to the training scenario I had practiced, that I was able to act without hesitation. I hope more Agency employees have the opportunity to take this training, because it has now become one of the most consequential courses of my career. If you do encounter the DDQC trainers anytime in the near future, please pass on my profuse thanks and gratitude.

 

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It's been a few years, but I used to frequent DDQC. I recently encountered a mass casualty event on a non-DDQC related deployment to Africa and wanted to say thank you to you and the rest of the instructors for preparing me and my coworker for the situation. I have heard you all say ‘this might come in handy, even if not in a combat zone deployment’ about a dozen times, and you were right. 

We were driving in rural West Africa and came across the accident in the pic (pic is after we finished up). A bus/van with ~30 - 35 people had rolled down a ravine. The bus/vans over here are way overcrowded and don't have any type of safety features, usually replacing cushioned seats with sharp metal benches. The scene was very similar to the staged mass casualty exercise we experienced outside the building at DDQC. We only had one IFAK with some 550 cord, plus duct tape and us. 

Jesse and I used nearly every technique we had practiced in DDQC. We treated open fractures, multiple fractures on one limb, severe eye trauma (mashed to jelly), filleted calf muscle, arterial bleeds, head wounds that looked bad but were not, puncture wounds, and the list continues. We improvised with 3” wooden spoon splints, bush stick and duct tape splints, clothing as tourniquets and gauze, and other clean-ish materials we found on the site to pack wounds after the IFAK ran out. Knowing how to triage patients in light of limited supplies was a huge help.

After the chaos was over, we had a few major takeaways: 

1. We do not travel with enough aid supplies.
2. Rule 1, doing something, is very important. Until we started working on people, no one was doing anything to stabilize people or control bleeding. Just standing around staring at the victims. 
3. DDQC practice sank in and was a huge help. We have both taken the course numerous times and while it can be tedious at times, we both knew what to do effectively and efficiently. 
   
   

Please pass our thanks on to the rest of the instructor team. Well done.

Words cannot express how thankful my family is for the CPR training I received from your staff. You might not hear it enough, but your department does a great service to the agency and the country.  

One life saved…my daughter. 

Audrey stopped breathing and with your CPR training, I was able to bring her back.
Thanks, and love from the Mata Family.