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  • Justin Mast, right, meets first lady Michelle Obama, left. Photo contributed

    justin mast
September 16, 2012

First lady says 'thanks' to Bethany alumnus

Bethany Christian Schools

Bethany Christian alumnus Justin Mast has been busy responding to emergency needs around the country this summer.

Some of those places include his hometown of Aurora, Colo., as the coordinator of the Medical Center of Aurora‘s emergency response team, and recently in New Orleans, La., as part of the federal government’s disaster medical assistance team. And in between he met first lady Michelle Obama, who thanked him and his colleagues for their efforts in caring for victims of the July 20 mass shooting in an Aurora theater that killed 12 and injured 58.

Mast attended Bethany for a little over two years, before his family moved to northern Michigan where his father was called as a pastor of a small Mennonite church. Following high school, Mast worked as an emergency medical technician and firefighter while earning an associate nursing degree from Hesston (Kan.) College. In 2001 he moved to Aurora, Colo., in part to be on call with the federal government’s disaster medical assistance team, which provides rapid-response medical care in times of disaster and medical resources for special events. In addition to his recent two-week stint in New Orleans, Justin has worked at the 2002 Olympics and the 2011 NATO Summit in Chicago.

On the evening of the mass shooting in Aurora, Mast was at home but was quickly summoned to the medical center. While he initially assisted with caring for patients, his primary role was assisting in the command center to work at logistics (make sure emergency needs were being taken care of), address needs of victim’s family members and relate with media as the incident gathered national and international interest.

As Mast settled back into the normal rhythms of an emergency room nurse, he didn’t fully understand the continued national interest surrounding the mass shootings until the first lady’s visit several weeks later. Justin noted that her visit wasn’t a political event. There were no speeches. She simply shook hands and talked with each person present — doctors, nurses, administrators, custodians.

He said, “I could tell she had worked in health care from the ease in which she interacted with people and understood our various roles.”

Two weeks after the first lady’s visit, Mast was sent to New Orleans with a federal disaster medical assistance team. With widespread power outages (affecting more than 275,000 people), he helped run a special needs shelter for people dependent upon electricity for their medical needs such as needing to use oxygen concentrators.

He described the hospital as a short-term nursing home in a convention hall. His team worked in conjunction with local officials, taking charge of the daily operation of the shelter so that local officials could work at long-term solutions — getting people out of the shelter and back into their homes or permanent facilities.

Though his work can sometimes take him away from his family — his wife Jessica and sons Benjamin, 5, and Philip, 4 —Justin feels called to working with people in emergency situations.

He said, “Emergency nursing is perhaps only 25 percent medical. The other 75 percent is providing psychological and spiritual support to people who are hurting, in pain, and scared. No one wants to come see us. No one wants to be there. My hope is that amid the chaos and ugliness people are experiencing that I can provide an outward calm and shed some light into their lives, perhaps through a hug, a smile, a conversation, or a prayer.”

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