a. At some point in the operation, the casualty will be scheduled for evacuation.

However, evacuation time may be quite variable, from minutes to hours to days. There are a multitude of factors that will affect the ability to evacuate a casualty. Availability of aircraft or vehicles, weather, tactical situation, and mission may all reflect the ability or inability to evacuate casualties.

b. There are only minor differences in the care provided in the CASEVAC phase versus the tactical field care phase.

(1) Additional medical personnel may accompany the evacuation asset and assist the soldier medic on the ground. This may be important for the following reasons:

(a) The soldier medic may be among the casualties.

(b) The soldier medic may be dehydrated, hypothermic or otherwise debilitated.

(c) The evacuation asset’s medical equipment may need to be prepared prior to evacuation.

(d) There may be multiple casualties that exceed the capability of the soldier medic to care for simultaneously.

(2) Additional medical equipment can be brought with the evacuation asset to augment the equipment the soldier medic currently has. This equipment may include:

(a) Electronic monitoring equipment capable of measuring a casualty’s blood pressure, pulse, and pulse oximetry (oxygen saturation of the arterial blood).

(b) Oxygen should be available during this phase.

(c) Ringer’s lactate at a rate of 250 ml per hour for casualties that are not in shock should help to reverse dehydration, and in some special circumstances blood products may be available during this phase.

(d) Thermal Angel fluid warmers may be needed to warm IV fluids.

(e) A pneumatic anti-shock garment (PASG), if available, may be beneficial in pelvic fractures and helping to control pelvic and abdominal bleeding. The PASG is contraindicated in thoracic and traumatic brain injuries).