Alaska Air National Guard Guardian Angel personnel staged a dramatic rescue of a Kotlik woman on March 22, parachuting into the village in poor weather conditions to deliver medical care.
According to a press release, the patient had “significant internal bleeding, she was experiencing low blood pressure and had a rapid pulse,” so the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation requested a medevac. But blowing snow and low visibility prevented civilian air ambulances from responding.
So members of the Alaska Air National Guard jumped into the village from a 176th Wing combat search and rescue aircraft to deliver two units of blood to the patient, who was being cared for at the Kotlik clinic. They received guidance from a doctor in Bethel before evacuating the woman. Persistent bad weather forced the National Guard aircraft to divert to McGrath and then to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where the patient was then taken to an Anchorage-area hospital.
There is no update on her current condition.
