Posted on: Thursday, September 30, 2004
Crash rescuers also victims
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Tragedies can't be isolated, and the victims of a major accident such as Friday's Bali Hai tour helicopter crash go far beyond the individuals killed.
Families and friends obviously are in grief, but so are the employees of the helicopter company that booked them, the folks that sold them on the tour, the employees of other helicopter firms that have had accidents, the rescue crews that recover the bodies and many more.
Firefighters on Monday and Tuesday recovered four of the five bodies on Bali Hai's Bell 206B JetRanger, but could not bring back the fifth, which they said was trapped under the fuselage. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Nicole Charnon said Bali Hai's insurance carrier would hire a salvage firm to recover the wreckage; firefighters said the last body should be accessible then.
When search helicopters took to the skies and firefighters boarded helicopters to attempt a rescue, a team of counselors also mobilized from Kaua'i Hospice, an organization that serves the dying and their families but also has a program to assist in sudden deaths.
"We call them our beeper team — our Emergency Bereavement Support Service Team," said Gina Kaulukukui, the hospice's bereavement coordinator.
The counselors, who carry beepers and are on call day and night, can make all the difference for those traumatized by an accident.
"The hospice people, a lot of them have first-hand experience, and you know they know what you're talking about, especially when you get down to the graphic details," said Aukai Lee, who spent a night trapped alone on a cliffside with the bodies of victims of a helicopter crash in 1998.
Lee, a 14-year veteran of the Kaua'i Fire Department, remembers the days when no counseling was available, no help for rescue crews facing blood on their clothing, the smell of death in their nostrils.
"When I first started in the Fire Department, you'd go get a beer and suck it up. But that doesn't do it for most people.
"I think for a lot of the guys, a common thing is smell. In aviation disasters, there's a lot of Jet A (fuel). Later, if you drive by the airport and smell it, it just snaps you back. Immediately you're reliving the whole thing — all of it," Lee said.
Today, firefighters sit down to talk through their experiences after a tough assignment. They call it a defusing session, said Kaua'i Fire Chief Dennis Furushima.
"They talk about what they saw, what they are feeling. Afterwards, we monitor them. If we kind of suspect there might be some after-effects, we might call hospice or the EAP (the county's Employee Assistance Program)," Furushima said.
Trauma common
Help available for his staff, the fire chief said, is critical.
"We have people who went on the recovery (of bodies in the Bali Hai crash) who were exposed to this kind of thing for the first time. It can cause nightmares, flashbacks. For some, you get the sense that they're not interested in the job anymore," he said.
Lee knows that feeling. Invited to a post-crash discussion session some time ago, he told the office he didn't need it, he just wanted to stay home.
"That was a huge red flag for them. They were out at my house right away," he said.
Lee is fully supportive of the defusing sessions and counseling for those touched by particularly "graphic" events.
"All it takes is them being able to open up and talk about it," he said.
Kaulukukui said that when she is handling a tragedy at the police/fire command center, she tries to keep communication open with the rescuers. For example, most don't eat while working a site, but they do get thirsty. One worker mentioned that Gatorade would be nice, so the next day she had chilled Gatorade available for them.
Kaulukukui checks in with them occasionally. She demonstrates. Her head cocks to the side. Her eyes settle fixedly on the face. Her voice drops a little: "How are you doing?"
It's not much, but it can open a door, an avenue for working on grief and pain.
With the families of victims, Kaua'i Hospice's services can vary from sitting quietly in support to keeping away aggressive reporters, arranging extensions on hotel accommodations and helping to get bodies sent home.
Ultimately, the service differs markedly from the hospice's main function, providing support to families when someone is terminally ill and no longer actively seeking treatment.
"We look at the patient and the family. The patient is the center of that circle, but we embrace the entire family," Kaulukukui said.
Friend in need
Kaua'i Hospice has a cadre of full- and part-time professionals, plus about 30 volunteers. It has nurses to monitor pain medication and act as liaisons between families and physicians. It has volunteers who will wash dishes or sit with the dying family members so the primary caregiver — often a spouse or child — can to go work or do errands.
Hospice helped four years ago when Eric Honma's father, Riyozo, was dying. Honma, of 'Ele'ele, recalls that nurses were available, the hospice helped with paperwork and talking to the mortuary, and sent follow-up letters after the death offering help if needed.
Fire Chief Furushima's mother-in-law had hospice help when she was dying two years ago. "They provided that emotional and family support," he said.
Cathy Sancious, Kaua'i Hospice volunteer coordinator, had hospice help during the death of her mother. She said the volunteers grew very close to the dying woman.
"She felt that she had an extended family of children," Sancious said.
There are never fees for hospice care, Kaulukukui said. The organization is financed mainly through medical insurance (most policies cover hospice care), donations from foundations and individuals, and revenues from its annual July 4th fireworks festival at Vidinha Stadium.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
