Stroke Victim Stranded At South Pole Base 264
Hugh Pickens writes "Renee-Nicole Douceur, the winter manager at the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole, was sitting at her desk on August 27 when she suffered a stroke. 'I looked at the screen and was like, "Oh my God, half the screen is missing."' But both the National Science Foundation and contractor Raytheon say it would be too dangerous to send a rescue plane to the South Pole now, since Douceur's condition is not life-threatening. Douceur's niece Sydney Raines has set up a Web site that urges people to call officials at Raytheon and the National Science Foundation. However, temperatures must be higher than -50 degrees F for most planes to land at Amundsen-Scott or the fuel will turn to jelly. While that threshold has been crossed at the South Pole recently, the temperature still regularly dips to 70 degrees below zero. 'It's like no other airfield in the U.S.,' says Ronnie Smith, a former Air Force navigator who has flown there about 300 times. A pilot landing a plane there in winter, when it is dark 24 hours a day, would be flying blind 'because you can't install lights under the ice.' The most famous instance of a person being airlifted from the South Pole for medical reasons was that involving Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, a doctor who diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer. Using only ice and a local anesthetic, she performed her own biopsy with the help of a resident welder. When she departed on October 16, 1999, it was the earliest in the Antarctic spring that a plane had taken off."
Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)
McChord Air Force Base has a couple of C-17s in Christchurch *right now* involved in Operation Deep Freeze. Of course, the jets keep the engines running while cargo goes off and on, and as a point of fact, we are now actually doing NVG landings and take-offs.
Please DON'T call (Score:5, Informative)
First, email the people on this list and tell them the money saved denying Renee a Medevac flight will not be worth the bad press. Ask them to do the right thing.
Please no. This really isn't about saving money. If that's all it was, they'd do the flight just to head off the bad PR.
Sending a flight to the south pole in adverse conditions costs lives. Figuring a 1 in 15 chance of a crash per round trip and a flight crew of 3, that's 0.2 lives you're paying to airlift her out of there.
That's an acceptable risk for someone who will die unless they're rescued, but that's not the case: she had a stroke; the damage is done. They probably have her on blood thinners now and she's off-duty and taking it easy, which is basically all that they can do for her in a proper hospital to prevent a recurrence. Any rehab therapy she needs can be adequately done by videoconference until they can get a flight down there.
Re:Lighting. (Score:5, Informative)
I spent one year as the leader of the Norwegian Antarctic research station (Troll).
We did not have winter flights either, but we had plans for doing it.
We had a set of airport lights we could place along the runway, complete with PAPI lights to guide incoming planes. These were not permanently mounted, but would only require a couple of hours to get in place. I find it odd that Amundsen-Scott does not have something similar.
The real problem is weather, a little bit of wind, and the lights disappear in snow drift. Another problem is that the runway must be cleared of snow, which is a considerable amount of work that is also dependent on the weather.
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is that the C-17's have wheels. Unless things have changed recently, Amundsen only has a snow field, not an ice runway like McMurdo. Landing anything other than a twin-otter or LC-130 at Amundsen probably wouldn't be classified as a "landing" and definitely would be a one-way trip (note the L before the C-130 - it's not a normal Herky-bird).
Another issue is that the LC-130 doesn't have the legs to make CHC-Amundsen-CHC non-stop. Therefore, it has to land at McMurdo at least once. That means that the weather has to be agreeable to allow the mission to happen (putting aside the issues with fuel jelling and gasket failure at the Amundsen temperatures). In early October, some days the weather at McMurdo is good, but it's not the rule. Nasty storms this time of year.
While the situation is quite sad, most of the damage in a stroke occurs in the first hour, which has long sense passed. Rehab is the only treatment at this point. Another stroke may happen, and medical intervention could reduce that chance, but a chance is an awfully big dice-roll that involves a full flight-crew.
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)
Also, the south pole base at 2,835 meters elevation. McMurdo is a comparatively balmy 24m and 78degrees latitude.
C17 landing photo at night, proof here (Score:3, Informative)
A C-17 Globemaster III aircrew from McChord Air Force Base, Washington, performed the first known after-dark landing in Antarctica using night vision goggles on September 11, 2008.
http://photolibrary.usap.gov/Portscripts/PortWeb.dll?query&field1=Filename&op1=matches&value=09122008_NVG_C17.JPG&catalog=Antarctica&template=USAPgovMidThumbs [usap.gov]
other factors (Score:5, Informative)
I know Renee personally. In fact, I submitted this story to Slashdot in late September, but it didn't get posted.
There are other factors involved. Renee is aware of the problems with an evacuation this time of year, but was more concerned about being prevented from getting a second medical opinion and being denied a medical attendant on the evacuation flight. She sought publicity upon the advice of her lawyer, who felt this was the only way to pressure the company to do the right thing - and the publicity campaign has worked. Renee is now getting a second medical opinion and will be getting a medical attendant on her evacuation flight.
Polar aviation technology has advanced considerably since 1999, and a Twin Otter can safely land at considerably lower temperatures than an LC-130. You may note that Renee did not ask for an evacuation in August or most of September - merely that a plane be put on standby for an evacuation as soon as possible in October. She didn't earn her Engineering degree or get to be Winter Site Manager by being stupid. There was also concern that the denial of her reasonable request for a second medical opinion, etc., might be retaliation related to some issues with anonymous whistleblowers which she handled.
It should also be noted that some types of stroke can get progressively worse, and that she is currently at a high altitude with low oxygen which might exacerbate the damage. I understand the skepticism, but like I say - she is not stupid.
More information here, though note that this page was established by family members, not Renee herself:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Evacuate-Renee-Nicole-Douceur-from-Antarctica-Immediately/139354572829055 [facebook.com]
Air Pressure ... (Score:5, Informative)
Renee is at the South Pole, at an elevation of 9300 feet - however, because the atmosphere at the poles is thinner than at the equator, air pressure at South Pole is roughly equivalent to 10,500 feet.
However, this is a good point. It is one of the reasons why Renee requested a medical attendant on her evacuation flight, as well as a second medical opinion about her condition. Both requests were at first denied, but fortunately this publicity campaign has succeeded in getting both these requests granted.
As always with news stories, some of the most relevant details were omitted.
(I wintered with Renee at McMurdo Station in 2009, and have been in contact with her regarding her current circumstances.)
other factors (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Look at her website... (Score:4, Informative)
I assure you that Renee is no whiner. I wintered with her at McMurdo in 2009. She's a tough lady.
There are other factors in play here, which may come out in the future.
Renee was primarily concerned about getting a second medical opinion and a medical attendant for her evacuation flight. Both of these were previously denied to her - but thanks to the publicity, both have been now been granted.
Re:Lighting. (Score:4, Informative)
I've wintered at Pole multiple times. It's a very different place than Troll or McMurdo. The coldest coastal temps are like a warm October or February day at Pole. It's not practical to deploy electric cables in those temps (80F to -100F late in the winter and into sunrise). For airdrops (and the April, 2001, medevac via Twin Otter), they use "burn barrels" to mark out the skiway.
Wind and visibility is indeed an important factor, though unlike a hard-surface runway, you don't clear the snow off of the skiway so much as grade and shape the snow pack so the skis don't sink in. They have limited equipment and limited qualified personnel in the winter (usually 1-3 people) and it takes weeks to take the skiway from mid-winter conditions to ready-for-station-opening condition, and one storm can demolish a week's work.
I'm not there this year and can't comment on specific issues with Renee's situation. Once the Winter is over. I'm sure we'll hear more about how things got to this point, but right now, from 10,000 miles away, our speculation here can't possibly be based on enough facts to be remotely viable.
Re:Hmm... (Score:4, Informative)
The problem is that the C-17's have wheels. Unless things have changed recently, Amundsen only has a snow field, not an ice runway like McMurdo. Landing anything other than a twin-otter or LC-130...
Another issue is that the LC-130 doesn't have the legs to make CHC-Amundsen-CHC non-stop. Therefore, it has to land at McMurdo at least once. That means that the weather has to be agreeable to allow the mission to happen (putting aside the issues with fuel jelling and gasket failure at the Amundsen temperatures). In early October, some days the weather at McMurdo is good, but it's not the rule. Nasty storms this time of year.
Pole still has a packed-snow skifield. No jets, no tires. Skis only. That means an LC-130 or Twin Otter (as you mention) or a Basler BT-67 (upgraded and stretched DC-3). Of the three, only the LC-130 is pressurized, and, yes, Hercs have a 9-10-hour flight range, so it uses one load of fuel to get from CHC to McMurdo (9.5 hrs), then another to get from McMurdo to Pole and back to McMurdo (6-7 hrs). They'd use a C-17 for the McMurdo-to-CHC return this time of year - it's faster and roomier for all involved (faster matters double because you have to have good weather at the flight endpoints throughout the flight in case you have to abort-to-departure, or "boomerang"). There's also the requirement for an additional plane on standby in case it has to be sent out for Search-and-Rescue if the first plane goes down. They never operate only one LC-130 at a time. There have to be two or perhaps three present and functional to launch the primary mission.
The issue with temps below -50C is more about seals and gaskets than gelled fuel. They got a waiver in 2004 to open the station with LC-130s at -57C. I watched as one of the planes taxied back from an aborted take-off and spent 3 hours in the pit cycling its engines. They did eventually take off and arrive at McMurdo successfully, but after that incident, the Air Guard became unwilling to operate the planes when the ground temps at Pole were below -50C (and in 2005, I watched the third station-opening flight turn back because it got too cold between #2 and #3. It was 6 days and two more attempts before it returned). In 2006, station opening was delayed 10 days due to weather (visibility or temps - ISTR it varied from day to day).
Re:Get some TPA down there for the next time (Score:4, Informative)
No, they shouldn't. tPA is finicky stuff. If its administered during the first three hours of an ischemic stroke it can help, but after that it's more likely to hurt, and if you give it for a hemorrhagic stroke it can easily kill. The decision to give tPA is based a lot on experience and absolutely requires a CT scan, someone trained to obtain that scan and someone trained to interpret both the scan and the patient. You could potentially do the interpretation remotely but I don't think anyone has shown that yet (we were working on it) and you'd still need a CT scanner, which is probably not reasonably for such a small base.