By Lisa Brackin
Midway Island, 1956 – 1957
Returned as an employee of MPC 1997 – 1998
By Born on Midway – Lisa Brackin

My favorite story is the one when an international fishing boat fought a storm to get one of their guys to us so he could be Medevaced out. He had a head injury and was told by our doc to be kept as still as possible. They were in a storm and there was great concern about him surviving until they got him to the island and then on a flight to Hawaii. We tracked his progress for days before they finally arrived. The doc in his eagerness for everyone to see the pier, as they were arriving late at night, left the headlights on to the ambulance.

Once they arrived and had the patient loaded up the doc went to drive him to the clinic only to discover that he had killed the battery from leaving the lights on! He started phoning around until he finally found a pick up truck that he could transport the poor in. The funny thing is, the doc is telling me this story and completely amazed as all that happened to this guy! Anyway, the doc says that once they finally get the guy loaded in the back of the pick up the guy driving the truck thinks they should be in a hurry and hauls at break neck speed down the road, which is of course full of pot holes! He’s sitting in the back of the truck, with the injured guy, hanging on to the side of the truck for dear life wondering if this poor guy, who traveled all this way through a storm, which surprised the doc he had made it this far, was only going to now die from such ridiculous comedy of errors!

As he told me this story he stood before me shaking his head with a look of amazement on his face! I was in suspence to hear the end of the story, did the guy make it!! Well, he did and the next day the Medevac flight showed up with out any disasters and the guy had a full recovery. The doc continued to shake his head saying, I just can’t believe everything that happened to that guy.
I think the thing that made this story so amazing to me was not only the events but the honesty in which they were told.

Lisa Brackin
Midway Island, 1956 – 1957 and 1997 – 1998