U.S. Air Force, Army medics team with Paraguay in first-ever active-duty led medical assistance mission at AMISTAD24

Story by Capt. Madeline Krpan

12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern)

FILADELFIA, Paraguay — Active duty U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army personnel sourced from 15 locations across the globe arrived to Filadelfia, Paraguay, July 29 in support of Phase II of AMISTAD24, in the first ever active-duty-led U.S. military medical assistance mission in the country.

In an opening ceremony for Phase II, which took place at Hospital Materno Infantil Villa Choferes del Chaco in Filadelfia, July 31, U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Marc Ostfield emphasized the critical need for medical support in the region, and highlighted the success of Phase I, which took place the previous two weeks across four medical facilities in the northern El Chaco region of Paraguay and concluded July 25th.

“In the last two weeks, the AMISTAD24 team provided medical care to over 700 patients, gaining valuable experience working alongside the dedicated staff of the local hospitals and clinics,” Ostfield said. “My gratitude goes to the…staff for welcoming our teams.”

During Phase I of AMISTAD24, primarily U.S. Air Force Reserve Airmen and U.S. Army Massachusetts National Guard Soldiers provided direct medical care to 735 Paraguayan patients, many of whom belong to the local indigenous population of Guarani who call the region home, in a Total Force effort that set the stage for continued operations and the new team’s arrival.

“One of our main takeaways from the first two weeks of AMISTAD is how warmly we have been welcomed by our Paraguayan partners. The medical staff and interpreters we have worked with so far in our time here have been exceptional, and it’s inspiring to see our U.S. team work so closely with them in creative ways to address the needs of the local patient population,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Brittany Nutt, AMISTAD24 mission troop commander.

One of the main emphases for Phase II of AMISTAD24, which did not occur in Phase I, will be performing surgeries, ranging from small surgeries that are more superficial to large, complex abdominal surgeries that require operating with more in-depth procedures and equipment.

Key to enabling these surgeries is the shipment of approximately $1 million in medical supplies and operating and intensive care unit equipment in a containerized unit, which arrived to Paraguay via commercial air and accompanied the 13-member U.S. Army 759th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment (Airborne), assigned to the 44th Medical Brigade at Fort Liberty, N.C.

In typical operations, the surgical team deploys with the containerized unit of supplies and uses it in austere environments to aid Army paratroopers in airborne operations, said U.S. Army Capt. Connor Dial, 759th FRSD executive officer.

However, it is unique to send a container of medical equipment abroad to outfit operating rooms for a medical assistance mission.

“This equipment that we brought is critical because this is what we train on, this is what we know, our standard is to be able to…push the equipment out of a plane, jump out of the plane, and set it up in 30 minutes. Having it here [in Paraguay] and knowing the equipment here is important for us to get comfortable performing our mission in a different environment,” Dial said.

While providing surgeries in Filadelfia, the joint U.S. medical personnel participating in Phase II of AMISTAD24 will also provide optometry, primary care services, and emergency medical services.

The team will continue to focus on both building partnership capacity with Paraguayan medical providers and providing mutually beneficial training which can ultimately increase the medical readiness of both countries and help address local health concerns.

The community has already benefited from Phase I of operations, said Paraguayan Dr. Lucia Figuerado, General Director of Hospital Materno Infantil Villa Choferes del Chaco.

“We’ve even had questions from the community already, like, ‘When will they come back?’…[The community] has received the medical attention they’ve been waiting for and everyone has responded the same way, that they are very happy because they have been well cared for.”