Latest Medical evacuation Stories
By EARL KELLY Staff Writer The heads of the state trauma center and emergency medical system were expected this afternoon to call for a review of the criteria for flying patients aboard state police helicopters. The move comes in light of a crash last month that killed the three-member crew and one patient, who was being transported by helicopter for minor injuries. Currently, roughly 50 percent of patients who are flown by helicopter have nonlife-threatening injuries, and an even...
By EARL KELLY Staff Writer Reports that the patients aboard a state police medevac helicopter that crashed this weekend had only minor injuries have some lawmakers saying the state needs to reconsider the standards for air transport. Four people died in the crash. Ground paramedics use a sliding scale in deciding which patients should be flown by helicopter to a trauma center. At one end of the scale are patients who have highly visible injuries, while at the other, the patient may...
By The Associated Press DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) - The decision had been made safely many times before: Victims in a car crash were critically injured, and a helicopter was dispatched to rush them to the hospital.But before the emergency team ever got the patients to waiting doctors, the pilot struggled in the darkness and fog. Soon, he radioed that conditions were difficult, and said he would land elsewhere. The radio eventually went silent - and the helicopter was discovered in a...
By Nafeesa Syeed Associated Press DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. -- The pilot of a medical helicopter twice radioed for help in foggy weather before crashing Sunday, killing four of the five people on board in the latest of a growing number of air ambulance accidents, authorities said. The medical helicopter was carrying victims of a traffic accident when it went down in a suburban Washington park. It was the deadliest medevac helicopter accident in Maryland since the state police began flying those...
After years of stubborn refusal to do so, the state police medevac unit has cut back on the use of its helicopters, which suggests that they were being overused in flying accident victims to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Officials announced last week that the service will be transporting fewer patients. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, patients will be taken by ambulance to the nearest trauma center if that will take no more than 30 minutes. In addition,...
By EARL KELLY Staff Writer A gentle breeze blew across Anne Arundel Medical Center's new helipad yesterday, a $4 million rooftop landing area that will be linked by elevator directly to the hospital's emergency room. The pad will go into service in December, hospital officials said. AAMC's current helipad is about a quarter of a mile away from the hospital, on the far side of Jennifer Road. "We have to call an ambulance (that's on contract with the hospital), get a crew, go pick up the...
By Alan Levin WASHINGTON -- A recent spate of nighttime crashes by medevac helicopters has renewed calls for widespread use of an industry-desired safety feature: goggles that allow pilots to see at night. Nineteen people have died in medevac helicopter crashes since Dec. 30, putting this year on pace to be the deadliest in the industry's history. Four of the five fatal crashes -- which caused 13 of the 19 deaths -- happened when helicopters crashed in remote, nighttime conditions. None...
A national contract signed with Blue Cross Blue Shield, effective July 1, 2008, makes Angel MedFlight Worldwide Air Ambulance Services a preferred transportation services provider to BCBS members nationwide. Angel MedFlight is an Arizona-based air ambulance company offering international patient transfer and medical evacuation services. "Our new partnership with Blue Cross allows us to offer the best air ambulance transportation to even more patients," says Angel MedFlight President and...
By Holly Huffman, The Eagle, Bryan, Texas Jun. 22--When three 18-wheelers and a truck collided and burst into flames nearly two weeks ago in Robertson County, it took 35 minutes for a medical helicopter to arrive on the scene. Normally, it would have taken just 15 minutes for a PHI Air Medical air ambulance to fly from its base at Coulter Field in Bryan to rural Robertson County, emergency medical officials said. But June 10 wasn't normal. Just days earlier, the Bryan-based Med 12...
By The Portales News-Tribune, N.M. Jun. 18--Roosevelt General Hospital Director James D'Agostino told board members Tuesday an AreoCare helicopter was now stationed in Clovis to handle emergency patient transfers to Lubbock. Featuring twin engines, the MD 902 helicopter flies at about 145 mph, allowing a patient to be transported to Lubbock in 35 minutes, D'Agostino said. The helicopter also features onboard medical equipment that can be used to monitor and treat patients. "It is very...
