The call sign Lifeguard is used on the radio to make everyone aware of this. No need really to explicitly declare a medical emergency unless you're not getting the priority handling from ATC that call sign is meant to provide. When I was flying air ambulance, we met ambulances at the airport for patient pickup and delivery and they were nearly always going from ICU to ICU.
That said, it's an incredibly demanding job but can be rewarding whenever you make a difference. And it keeps things in perspective. It's difficult to complain about working at 4am, when a kid is fighting for her life behind you with a parent sitting nearby.
> transporting a passenger in a life or death emergency
For a medical emergency, you are better off calling 911. First responders such as EMTs, fire fighters have significant training as well as immediately life saving medications and equipment such as Narcan (to reverse opiate overdoses), Epinephrine (for anaphylactic shock - a life threatening allergic reaction), and defibrillators (for cardiac arrhythmias). Even police officers may have some of these things in their cars now (especially Narcan), and may be trained in such things as first aid and assisting with child birth.
In addition, the modern ambulance with paramedics provides much of the same life saving support that you would find in an ER. In addition, the ambulance will know which hospital in the area provides the type of care you need and they can call ahead to have things ready to go - for example, a patient having a stroke needs to go to a stroke center or a patient with a heart attack needs to go to a hospital than potentially has interventional cardiology on staff.
It's bananas that emergency medical services like air transport can be "in network" and "out of network." As if the patient in need of services has the capacity or ability to control which helicopter comes to pick them up from their near-death experience.
Firefighter / paramedic (/ IT geek) here: I took a patient today out of the ER (via ambulance) to a skilled nursing facility. There were a lot (for us, 6+) ambulances in the receiving bay. Patient comments: "Wow, busy. Usually when I'm going to the ER, and I see that many ambulances, I say to my friend "we'll come back tomorrow when it's quieter"."
I once called 911 when my wife had an Asthma attack that left her unable to speak or stand. She was transfered from an ambulance to a paramedic about half way to the hospital. My insurance covered one as in-network but not the other. My wife was released a few hours later. I was young and it took me about 10 years to pay off the dept I owed. I am extremely hesitant to call an ambulance if the person can be encouraged to move under their own power. So much so, that I was asked to sign papers when a family physician suggested an ambulance. This rule looks like it helps.
This is so true. My wife works at the level 1 trauma center here in Seattle and she often has to make the decision to call Airlift. After a couple of crashes a couple of years ago she is much more careful about weighing the risk to the crew against the real need of the patients.
They discuss this in the paper. In the event of a medical emergency the pod will proceed to the destination as normal, and paramedics can be waiting at the end. In the absolute worst case you are looking at ~30 minutes before you can get to medical attention. That's not obviously worse than the time it would take a plane to descend from cruising altitude to the nearest airport, land, and taxi to a gate.
One minor detail, if a single-pilot is dead, disabled or incapacitated, it wouldn't be a urgency, with a "PAN PAN" call, it would be an emergency, and the call would be "MAYDAY".
I know a few pilots who fly medical transfer flights, and sometimes they have critical medical emergencies in the cabin, and can results in the pilot-in-command (captain) declaring a medical emergency, although they may not actually use the word MAYDAY when declaring medical emergency.
Anything that requires EMT trauma response on the runway (eg. life threatening medical situation), Its probably justified in declaring an emergency. A minor scrapes or bruises from turbulence doesn't.
Even in an emergency you're virtually never the critical chain in the response.
First responders are. Bystanders are. The staff at the hospital are.
There can be cases in which it's helpful to advocate for someone (unfortunately in countries with private-payor adversarial healthcare systems this does approach a necessity at times), or to comfort. But that's a role that's very rarely time-critical.
Source: trained and experienced at first aid, treating emergencies, witness to numerous accidents and injuries (and on the recieving end in a few myself). There's an immense pressure and often an assumed obligation to be aware and respond. In terms of actually positively affecting outcome ... the role is grossly overstated.
The one critical exception is when engaged in remote activities (hiking, mountaineering, sailing, etc.) where you might be a required part of an initial help-summoning chain. That's the exception for most people.
Keeping a calm head, ensuring that qualified help *i
When I was in the ICU, the hospital went down my emergency contacts and failed to get a pickup until they dialed my dad. The people who were my emergency contacts were good at handling the process and simplifying things for my parents once they found out (shortly after my parents) but they felt some degree of guilt for having failed to have acted.
There are decisions to be made in these situations - notify work, transfer health information, ensure payment stuff is in order, notify people. It's much nicer to have someone handle all of these things.
And, in the end, I think people would have liked to have seen me before I died, should that have been my fate. And that takes flying out of wherever into wherever.
We definitely don't use it more broadly (in the industry, anyway... the public certainly mixes them up at times). Paramedics are ALS level care providers in the US.
Emergency calls dispatched to competing ambulance/hospitals.
Competing emergency dispatch services, say 911, 922, 933,...
Customized emergency dispatch services - We'll have a life flight helicopter on call for only $99 a month!
Plus any ideas from millions of people looking out for their best interests.
What do you mean? Yes, of course the ambulance might take the kid to the hospital. And then I'll follow the ambulance in my car to be there for my kid in the hospital. Or the kid has already been brought to the hospital. In any case, as a parent, I need to get that urgent call informing me about it, and I need to be there asap.
That said, it's an incredibly demanding job but can be rewarding whenever you make a difference. And it keeps things in perspective. It's difficult to complain about working at 4am, when a kid is fighting for her life behind you with a parent sitting nearby.
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