Dressed in an orange flight suit, Technical Sergent Luo Hsiu-wen (羅秀紋) was the only woman in a five-member crew getting ready to board a rescue helicopter at the air force base in Chiayi County as they executed a regular training drill to airlift stranded people.
Luo is the first female medical technician in the air force’s Air Rescue Group, which was established in 1954.
Her experience in the Girl Scouts while in high school and college sparked her interest in pursuing a career in the military after graduation, she said.
Photo: CNA
Due to her desire to challenge herself and save people’s lives, Luo decided to take the test to become one of the Air Rescue Group’s medical technicians after seeing a recruitment advertisement.
Surprised to find she was the only woman taking the test, Luo passed the examination in 2011. She became a qualified medical technician in the same year after having gone through six months of rigorous training.
Recalling her training, Luo said she did not receive any preferential treatment because of being the only woman.
“Although it was a challenge, I still managed to finish,” the 31-year-old told the Central News Agency in a recent interview.
“Being able to save people’s lives makes me feel proud of myself,” she said, adding that her parents also took pride in her.
Looking back over her four years of service in the Air Rescue Group, Luo said her most unforgettable experience was a mission last year to transport a woman who suffered severe brain injuries from Penghu to Taiwan to receive further treatment.
The patient was injured during a plane crash in Penghu in July last year and Luo’s team was dispatched to transport her back to Taiwan.
To reduce the patient’s intercranial pressure, parts of her skull had been removed and kept in a cooler, Luo said, adding that the crew had to discuss every detail of the mission beforehand to avoid any deterioration of the patient’s condition.
During the flight, the two military medical technicians on board needed to carefully observe the patient’s condition, while the pilots were required to fly the helicopter at an altitude lower than the average of 915m and avoid making big turns, she added.
“We needed to record her vitals every five minutes,” Luo said.
Although a doctor and a nurse were also on the helicopter, she said she was still very nervous.
The only woman out of about 30 medical technicians in the group, Luo has proven that she is just as capable as her male colleagues.
Commenting on the group’s first female medical technician, Air Rescue Group head Colonel Chen Mei-huang gave Luo a thumbs-up.
Medical technicians play an important part in a rescue mission, said Chen, who is a pilot. After the pilots fly the helicopter to the target area, it is medical technicians who are responsible for airlifting the injured, he said.
“I hope that more women will join the group,” Chen said.
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