Public health technician assists vehicle accident victims Published Nov. 21, 2014 By Steve Pivnick 81st Medical Group KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Airman 1st Class Katryn Booth was able to put her self-aid buddy-care training to good use during a recent trip to New Orleans. The 81st Aerospace Medicine Squadron public health technician and a few friends from Keesler Medical Center were traveling along I-10 around 11 a.m. Nov. 8 when they passed a vehicle accident that had just occurred. "We were out in the middle of nowhere in Hancock County, not far from the (state-line) visitors' center," Booth remembered. "Several people were pulling the injured from an overturned truck." The accident victims were a father and his teen-aged son whose pickup truck had apparently been rear-ended, then rolled down an embankment and flipped over. "The dad was standing and walking around," she said. "I spoke with him and saw his arm was bleeding so I had him put pressure on it. I was more concerned about the boy." The boy was shaking and appeared to be going into shock, Booth said. His right arm was bowed above the wrist, discolored from pooling blood, and his fingers were bent. She had him sit down and started treating the boy. "I looked at his arm and believed it needed a splint," she said. "Recalling my SABC training, I knew I should use a belt. Since I wasn't wearing one, I asked the son for his. Then I asked a bystander to find a branch and she brought me one that was about a half-inch wide. I used the belt to hold it in place as a splint. The discolored area immediately began to improve." As the 15-year-old boy was seated, Booth had a better view of his fingers. "I distracted him and straightened the bent figure, then used his shoe laces to tie the fingers together to stabilize them," she said. She observed the young man was drifting in and out of conversation and appeared to be going into shock. "He was also crying and hyperventilating so I asked someone to bring him water," she said. "I was really worried about him, trying to keep him talking by asking about the accident, where he went to school and trying to make him laugh." Booth mentioned it took 30-40 minutes between the time she arrived at the accident scene and the father and son were placed in an ambulance. She also helped the EMTs put the pair in the ambulance. "The EMTs laughed when they saw the splint," she said. "They seemed to know I was in the military by the way the splint was applied with various handy items." Booth entered her telephone number in the dad's cellphone in case they wanted to contact her. "The son called me later that evening," she said. "He told me he was doing alright - his arm and fingers had been x-rayed." Describing her reaction to the event, Booth said, "I was really shaken up, kind of shocked by what had happened. We stopped at the rest stop so I could get some coffee." She added, "I'm really proud of myself because I used what I was taught. Usually, you go through the (SABC) training and think, 'I'll never have to use this.'" Booth last completed the annual training about a year ago and mentioned she is almost due for it again. Parker Perry, a reporter from her hometown, somehow saw Booth's entry about the incident on her Facebook page. He contacted both her and the father, who he identified as Mark Loughman. "She was very calm and professional. She was really helpful calming (my son) down," said Loughman. "We owe her a debt of gratitude."