Wellness Unmasked: Iran Rescue Mission, Pilot Survival & The Hidden Injuries of Ejection
4/7/202619 mincomplete
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2:41Welcome to Wellness Unmasked. I'm Dr.
2:43Nicole Sapphire. And today we're going to talk about the incredible rescue mission that happened
2:48in Iran over the weekend.
2:49Why are we talking about this on a wellness podcast, you may ask?
2:53Well, if you haven't been paying attention, this has been one of the most incredible
2:57rescue missions. And from a medical standpoint, it is awe -inspiring that while we know
3:03that there are injuries, there were no fatalities.
3:06So let me just recap for anybody who hasn't watched the news over the last
3:11weekend. On April 3rd, you know, a couple days before Easter, the USF -15E Strike
3:17Eagle, which is a type of plane, was shot down over Iran.
3:21Both crew members on board, the pilot and the weapons system officer, had to eject
3:27themselves. And what we knew were, we had to then go in to get them.
3:32A second aircraft, an A -10, was also downed the same day.
3:37That pilot ejected himself and was part of a separate rescue mission that got a
3:42little bit less fanfare. Now, a massive search and rescue mission went on over the
3:48course of the next, like, 45 hours.
3:50Like, 176 aircraft were involved, 100 to 200 special operations personnel.
3:56This included SEAL Team 6, Delta Force, Army Rangers, drones, electronic warfare, CIA.
4:04I don't even know. I'm sure they can't even tell us, everyone who was involved
4:08in this. But there was electronic jamming, fake intelligence, diversion flights, anything to just throw
4:15Iran off course. Because you have to imagine, we are now in war with Iran.
4:19So Iran wanted to find our downed pilots and weapons officers just as much as
4:25we did. They had very different intentions as us in finding them, but they certainly
4:30were on the search as well.
4:32What do we know? The pilot was rescued first, but then that massive hunt went
4:37on for the weapons specialty officer.
4:39So here's what we know now about what happened.
4:43We have gotten some statements from the White House.
4:46You know, after 45 hours, they found the weapons officer.
4:49He had climbed up to a mountaintop ridge and was hiding there, and he was
4:55also emitting an electronic beacon, and that's how they were able to find him.
4:58Now, the statements from the White House is that people that were found, they are
5:04alive. There were no fatalities.
5:06There were some injuries. They have not been specific on the injuries.
5:10We also had some fighting on the ground.
5:12A military helicopter took fire, and of everyone who ejected anyone on the ground, anyone
5:19in that military helicopter, there were no fatalities.
5:22Absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. time of war.
5:25When we talk about fatalities, sometimes we forget that these are human lives that we're
5:29talking about. But it was an Easter miracle, if you will, that there were no
5:34fatalities reported with this rescue mission.
5:37Now, I want to talk to you about why there still can be severe injuries,
5:41even if everything went right when it came to the pilot and the weapons officer
5:47ejecting. So the words that were described were that they were seriously wounded, but he
5:52survived. And he was able to climb 7 ,000 feet up a ridge and hid
5:57in a crevice of this mountainous ridge for hours.
6:01So what happens when a pilot ejects themselves from a plane?
6:06Let's think about this. Think about a car accident.
6:08When you're going 50, 60 miles per hour, and then all of a sudden you
6:12go to a stop. The body is not necessarily made to handle that sort of
6:16rapid acceleration, deceleration movement. That's why you can have severe injury, including from the mildest
6:23form, just a mild form of whiplash when your head goes forward and then back.
6:27Because the spine is flexible, it's made up of many different joints, and it's supposed
6:32to move. And so if you are now going in significantly faster in an airplane,
6:38then you have to eject yourselves.
6:40Now you're going from, you're going straight and then you go straight up at a
6:4490 degree angle. That's another kind of acceleration change that the body is just not
6:49equipped for. And that acceleration going up as you eject, I think it can be
6:54anywhere from like 12 to 13 G's worth of force that is being ejected out.
6:59So that pressure on the body, specifically on the spine, the spinal vertebrae, which are
7:05these little rectangular bones that make up the spine, they can be crushed by the
7:10weight of this powerful force as you're being ejected out.
7:13And you could also have like a severe whiplash in terms of ligament injuries that
7:18are responsible for holding that spine straight.
7:21So spinal injuries, unfortunately, anywhere from 30 to 50 % of people who eject from
7:27these planes can get some.
7:29Now, not all spinal injuries are created equally.
7:31You can have mild injuries that can result in pain and maybe just a back
7:37brace for a few weeks or months.
7:39But you can also have severe spinal injuries that can leave someone paralyzed or even
7:43dead. The good news is we know that the pilot was able to climb 7
7:47,000 feet to get to that mountaintop ridge.
7:50So the chance of him being paralyzed, in my opinion, would be exceedingly low.
7:55But the chance of him having some sort of spinal injury is likely very high.
8:00Also upon ejection, the arms or the legs can get stuck or can hit something
8:06on the way out. So you can have some sort of extremity issue.
8:09And that happens about 25 % of the time.
8:11And thankfully, less common now that pilots wear helmets, you can have total brain injury.
8:17And this happens in less than 10 % of cases.
8:20So these are all just upon ejecting out of the plane.
8:23Now we have to worry about them coming down, the landing injuries.
8:27As you know, after they eject, they have now a parachute.
8:30But that parachute, again, even when it's working in all its glory, you can still
8:35hit the ground, another deceleration injury, very fast.
8:39And we see all the time people who go skydiving, which is why I yell
8:43to my kids, please don't ever jump out of a plane voluntarily, unless you're saving
8:48people. But you can have, you land on the ground, and it can crush the
8:52bones of your legs and of your pelvis if you land too fast or you
8:56land at the wrong angle.
8:58So also highly likely that maybe he had some lower extremity injury, which would make
9:04climbing up that ridge very difficult.
9:05But when you are in that fight or flight moment, when you have your adrenaline
9:10and your cortisol and all the other stress hormones, your body perceives pain less because
9:16it wants you to survive.
9:18So you see people walking on broken legs, ankles, dislocated, whatever, because and not feel,
9:25not be inhibited by pain because they have all of these stress hormones.
9:29Once he got safely to that mountaintop and he found himself cover, I would imagine
9:36that some of that pain likely set in.
9:38And now we have to worry about the fact that the temperatures were dipping into
9:42the 30s at night. And now while that is cold and can get below freezing,
9:47hypothermia tends to set in at lower temperatures.
9:51But because he is injured, because he is stressed and he was perspirating or sweating,
9:58he is more vulnerable to hypothermia injuries as well.
10:02We also have to worry about dehydrating, seeing as I doubt that he remembered to
10:07grab his water bottle upon ejection when he was ejecting for his life.
10:12So we also worry about altitude sickness being that high up in the mountains.
10:17So his medical care is likely going to be multifaceted, multilayered.
10:22But the fact that he was able to climb up the ridge 7 ,000 feet,
10:26he had the mental clarity to get there to send that electronic beacon gives me
10:31hope that, you know, that he will be okay.
10:34And he is getting the best medical care possible.
10:37These brave men and women who go out to defend not only our nation, but
10:44people all across the globe, they are to be praised.
10:47It is incredible what this person but and everyone who was involved in this mission
10:51went through. And, you know, Secretary of War Hegseth, you know, takes a lot of
10:56heat when he talks about we need the best of the best in the military.
11:00And he talks about some of the past policies where, unfortunately, the health of our
11:07nation has made military recruitment very difficult because not a lot of people can pass
11:13the physical benchmarks that are set because we are a nation of chronic illness and
11:19obesity. And instead of lowering the bar to who should be in the military, Secretary
11:25Hegseth is like, no, not only should we not maintain, but we need to raise
11:30the bar because we need the most mentally and physically strong who are going to
11:36be able to be put into these positions like these were in this time of
11:40war, who are going to be able to have the physical and mental fortitude to
11:44get themselves to that ridge.
11:45We can't lower the bar.
11:47We can't say, all right, well, you know, America is obese, so I guess we
11:51should now just allow obese people into the military, into these combat situations.
11:56No, we need to do what we can to get Americans healthy so that we
12:00can have the strongest people in our military who are defending our freedom.
12:04That's my opinion. I hate when I hear people say, well, we just need to
12:08lower the bar to the new status quo of America's health.
12:11And I don't think that's true.
12:12I think we need to take a long, hard look at the health of our
12:16nation and make sure that Americans have access to affordable food, physical activity.
12:22And that's a lot of what Make America Healthy Again is doing right now.
12:26You can be a critic of it.
12:27Absolutely. I don't agree with 100 percent of what's going on at the HHS, specifically
12:31at the CDC right now.
12:33But the reality is that a lot of the food, if you go into our
12:38grocery store, it is unhealthy unless you are just walking the periphery and you are
12:42staying with the whole fruits and vegetables, meats and fishes and others.
12:47The more you venture to the center of the grocery store, the more unhealthy it
12:51is. And we have manipulative and deceptive marketing tactics that make people think that they
12:57are giving themselves and their children something healthy when it's really not.
13:01And unfortunately, the less healthy stuff is what is more affordable.
13:06And so there's a lot of changes being made trying to encourage people to eat
13:10healthier, get more active. It's going to take a lot more than removing dyes from
13:15our food. It's going to take a lot of education.
13:17And it's also going to take a lot of reform when it comes to ensuring
13:20that these healthy foods are affordable.
13:22But at least we're finally having this conversation.
13:24And I think it's incredibly important.
13:26So many people these days are triggered by phrases like Make America Healthy Again.
13:30But if you are cheering against making our nation healthier, I don't really understand you.
13:36You can be critical of a movement and also support a lot of its strengths.
13:41And that's where I'm at when it comes to this.
13:43Making sure our environment's healthier, our food's healthier, and people have access to healthier foods
13:48is certainly something that I can get on board with.
13:51And when it comes to the military, I wholeheartedly support Secretary Hegseth when it comes
13:57to the United States should have the strongest military.
14:01And I'm not just talking about weapons.
14:02I'm talking about overall health.
14:04And with that is part of the Make America Healthy Again movement.
14:08So that is just my little recap of what has gone on in Iran this
14:13week. I just think it is really incredible.
14:15And I wanted to share it with you.
14:18Just because injuries happen, that doesn't mean that anything was done wrong or that the
14:22pilot or the weapons officers ejected incorrectly.
14:25No, unfortunately, these injuries are just part of the job.
14:29And they know that going into it.
14:31If you want to, if your plane is shot down, you want to save your
14:33life, you need to eject.
14:35But with ejecting comes very significant risk.
14:37Just like everything in medicine, you know, you have to weigh the risk benefits.
14:42And, you know, these guys go into those positions knowing them.
14:45And it is incredible that they were able to be found so quickly and gotten
14:50to medical attention as soon as they did.
14:53I just, I find stories like these, you know, anytime I watch like a military
14:58movie, like 12 Strong, I'm not sure if you guys have seen that.
15:01I just get the goosebumps because I just find the bravery and the camaraderie of
15:07these missions to just be next level.
15:10Like, I can't even wrap my head around what goes on during these missions.
15:14It's just so incredible. And yes, I see it in medicine and my day -to
15:18-day that how, you know, a team of people rally around to help a single
15:22person. But there's just something, something even more inspiring about these military missions.
15:29And so I wanted to share it.
15:30And maybe not everybody feels the same way about military stories that I do.
15:35But, well, you know what?
15:37I think they're amazing. And for me, what really stands out, I mean, it's not,
15:42isn't just the technology or the rescue mission or anything else.
15:46It's just the human body's ability to endure trauma, you know, push through that pain
15:51and survive against extraordinary odds.
15:53You know, in modern air combat, ejecting can save your life, but it rarely leaves
15:59your body unscathed. And the injuries, again, we don't have the details on them, but
16:04they're probably going to take a while to heal from.
16:06And he's probably going to have some mental trauma that will need to be addressed
16:09as well. But the mission highlights a critical truth in medicine.
16:12The most dangerous injuries aren't always the ones you see first.
16:16They're the ones that will potentially unfold later.
16:19We'll see you later. I'm Dr.
16:20Nicole Sapphire. Thank you so much for listening to Wellness Unmask.
16:23Be sure to listen to Wellness Unmask on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
16:27your podcasts. It's Dr. Nicole Sapphire from Wellness Unmask.
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16:53Every recipe includes step -by -step instructions and complete nutrition facts.
16:58It removes the guesswork and makes consistency easier.
17:02Download Snapshot Recipes today and get your first month free.
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17:44Nicole Sapphire from Wellness Unmask.
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