Page 3 - Desert Lightning News, So. AZ Edition, Nov. 3 2017
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Desert Lightning News                                         November 2017                                                                                                       3

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Airman assists veteran during medical crisisFacebook.com/DesertLightningNews

Story and photo by Airman 1st Class
              FRANKIE MOORE

                           355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs  Senior Airman Keith Buckman, 923rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron aerospace propulsion technician,                   SPOTLIGHT
                                                              and Army veteran Mark Byrne, 57, share a handshake Oct. 2 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Buckman
   After a long day of work, Senior Airman Keith              came to Byrne’s aid in the middle of the night and helped get him the medical attention he needed dur-
Buckman, 923rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron                  ing a transient ischemic attack.
aerospace propulsion technician, returned to his home
to get some well-deserved rest. Later that night, at ap-      ischemic attack, a stroke-like attack requiring im-    I picked Byrne up from (Southern Arizona Veterans
proximately 2:30 a.m., Buckman was awakened by a              mediate medical attention, which would keep him in     Affairs Health Care System),” Buckman said.
phone call from his friend, Mark Byrne, a 57-year-old         the hospital throughout the remainder of the morning.
Army veteran.                                                                                                           “If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know,” Byrne said. “With-
                                                                 The attack forced Byrne to leave his 89-year-old    out Buckman being as professional and mature as he
   “He was incoherent, and I couldn’t understand what         father behind, whom he’d been taking care of for some  was, that night could have gone a lot worse.”
he was saying,” Buckman said. “He could have been             time. During Byrne’s absence, Buckman stepped up
mistaken for being extremely intoxicated, but that            and cared for his father that morning while he was        Buckman’s swift response, calm attitude under
wasn’t like him.”                                             in recovery.                                           pressure, and willingness to check on a friend in the
                                                                                                                     middle of the night potentially reduced the risk of
   After realizing Byrne was acting out of character,            “After I made sure his dad was set, I went back to  Byrne suffering from future strokes.
Buckman rushed off to make sure everything was OK.            my home and prepared for work and later that day

   Buckman was met with a shocking discovery after
arriving to Byrne’s motorhome in Davis-Monthan Air
Force Base’s FamCamp.

   “He was hunched over the kitchen table, all swollen
and red, and drooling all over the table,” Buckman
said. “You could tell he was conscious, but not func-
tioning regularly.”

   Once Byrne realized Buckman showed up, he tried
his hardest to reach out and hand his phone over so
Buckman could talk to the security forces personnel
whom he was attempting to communicate with.

   “I distinctly remember trying to call security forces
— they couldn’t understand me either,” Byrne said. “In
my mind everything was coming out clear, but appar-
ently I was slurring all of my words.”

   Buckman took the phone and calmly conveyed to the
law enforcement desk that he wasn’t exactly sure what
happened to Byrne, but he needed help immediately.

   After waiting a short period of time, Buckman saw
the flashing lights of D-M’s security forces vehicles.
He realized they didn’t know the exact location of
Byrne’s motorhome, so he hastily grabbed a flashlight
and began to flag them down.

   Doctors determined Byrne suffered from a transient

   Chapel Services                                                                      Staff                                                       Notice of claims

Catholic                                                      Publisher ..............................................................Paul Kinison    It is with deepest re-
                                                              Business manager ...............................................Lisa Kinison          gret we announce Tech.
Desert Dove Chapel                                            Editor .......................................................... Deborah Leuthold    Sgt. Nicolas P. Cozee of
Daily Mass: 11:30 a.m. Monday through                         Advertising representative ................................Sandi Bueltel              the 355th Maintenance
                                                              Designer ............................................................... Emma Uribe   Group, Davis-Monthan
   Friday                                                                                                                                           Air Force Base, Ari-
Saturday Mass: 5 p.m.                                                    Printed by Aerotech News and Review, Inc.                                  zona, passed away on
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