SANTA RITA, Guam –
A Sailor relocating to Guam for a forward-deployed naval forces assignment with the maritime expeditionary security forces in U.S. 7th Fleet provided aid after a medical emergency was declared on a Thanksgiving Day flight from Hawaii.
Master-at-Arms 1st Class Jake Farque, from Benton, Arkansas, responded to a flight attendant’s announcement of a passenger in cardiac distress and used his training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to assist the individual during the remaining three hours of flight time.
“After checking the passenger’s vitals and getting his medical history from his wife, I hooked him up to the AED [Automated External Defibrillator] to monitor and put him on some oxygen,” said Farque.
The flight attendants contacted the airline’s medical team and determined the necessary procedures to follow.
“I stayed in contact with the flight surgeon through the crew and continued monitoring vitals and reporting to the flight surgeon to include blood pressure, breathing rate, and pulse,” said Farque. “The main priority was keeping him stable until we could land and he could be transported for further evaluation.”
Farque and the passenger were notified with an hour left of flight time that first responders were on the ground standing by for transportation to U.S. Naval Hospital Guam. He continued to monitor and relay vital stats of the passenger until the plane landed in Guam.
This wasn’t the first time Farque responded to a medical emergency.
“As a master-at-arms on Naval Base San Diego, I responded to numerous medical emergency calls,” said Farque. “It was kind of the same, stabilize them until being able to get further medical care. The only difference was the time it took to get to additional care.”
Farque and his family were flying to Guam as part of their transition to their new command at Detachment Guam, Maritime Expeditionary Security Group (MESG) 1. MESG 1 is the maritime expeditionary security force of Navy Expeditionary Forces Command Pacific-Task Force 75. Task Force 75 is U.S. 7th Fleet’s primary expeditionary task force and has the maritime expeditionary security forces respond with urgency to reinforce blue-water lethality and contributes to the U.S. Navy’s ability to secure and protect the maritime environment.
With the knowledge of his prior emergency medical training and previous missions through his service in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, Farque was able to respond in an expeditious manner. He said he encourages all Sailors to respond and do what they can when faced with similar situations.
“Just do what you can to help,” said Farque. “It is in our nature to take care of one another, and if you have the training and knowledge, do what you are trained to do.”
As the U.S. Navy's largest forward deployed fleet, U.S. 7th Fleet routinely operates between 50-70 ships and submarines and 140 aircraft with approximately 20,000 Sailors. 7th Fleet interacts with 35 other maritime nations to build partnerships that foster maritime security while conducting a wide-range of missions to support humanitarian efforts and uphold international laws and freedoms of the sea.