POINT MUGU : Ex-Paramedic Helps Save a Life at Sea

It’s been years since Jeff Ballow worked as a Navy paramedic, but he helped save a life this week.

He was working at the Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu when an international distress call came from a ship about 180 miles offshore. A 29-year-old French Canadian on a Canadian destroyer escort had a bleeding ulcer and was going into shock.

Yeoman Phillipe Pautel was lapsing in and out of consciousness, Ballow said.

Robert Klatt, a naval operations specialist, received the call but does not have medical training, said Sam Stanifer, Ballow’s supervisor. Ballow’s knowledge of medical terms made the rescue faster and easier, he said.

Sailors are on duty around the clock, Stanifer said. But most of the medical emergencies the center receives involve heart attacks, respiratory problems or cuts, and do not require advanced medical training.

“Somebody familiar with medical terminology is definitely an asset . . . communications is always very critical when you’re talking to someone out on the high seas,” Coast Guard Lt. Chris Reilly said.

Klatt and Ballow called the Coast Guard for a helicopter and directed the ship.The Coast Guard talked to Ballow by radio, who in turn talked to the ship. Although it has been a long time since his paramedic training and his work in a military hospital, Ballow said he remembered enough of the terminology to be useful.

“I didn’t have to ask them to spell out stuff for me,” he said.

Pautel was airlifted from the ship when it was about 115 miles from shore, Ballow said. He was sent to Goleta Valley Hospital, where he was treated and released, the nursing supervisor said.

Ballow said his job overseeing missile testing at Point Mugu does not give him a chance to use his medical background often.

But, he added, “I’m married to a nurse, so it’s hard to forget. She keeps me current on all the medical stuff.”