Dispatched to an ALS intercept in a very rural area you are an EMT driving your experienced, trustworthy Paramedic partner.
Radio advises you they are receiving updates from a volunteer fire squad at the scene of a rollover MVA with ejection, one person still alive. You have asked for the helicopter to be launched, but it has just launched for a long trip and will not be available for some time.
Arriving on scene you find two volunteer firefighters standing near the man who is prone on the ground. They are not even EMTs in this area, just Firefighters for their small community.
The patient is unconscious and unresponsive. You do your best to get him immobilized and O2 on while instructing the firefighters what to do and how to help. Loading the patient your partner looks from you to the firefighter and says, "I'm going to need a lot of help back here," and turns to one of the firefighters, "can you drive us as far as our district so we can get another driver to intercept us?"
Seems like a logical decision this far out. It took you almost 40 minutes just to get here, calling for another driver to respond would take forever.
Do you allow a driver you've never met to operate your ambulance in order to assist the medic in the back?
You make the call.
Radio advises you they are receiving updates from a volunteer fire squad at the scene of a rollover MVA with ejection, one person still alive. You have asked for the helicopter to be launched, but it has just launched for a long trip and will not be available for some time.
Arriving on scene you find two volunteer firefighters standing near the man who is prone on the ground. They are not even EMTs in this area, just Firefighters for their small community.
The patient is unconscious and unresponsive. You do your best to get him immobilized and O2 on while instructing the firefighters what to do and how to help. Loading the patient your partner looks from you to the firefighter and says, "I'm going to need a lot of help back here," and turns to one of the firefighters, "can you drive us as far as our district so we can get another driver to intercept us?"
Seems like a logical decision this far out. It took you almost 40 minutes just to get here, calling for another driver to respond would take forever.
Do you allow a driver you've never met to operate your ambulance in order to assist the medic in the back?
You make the call.
Comments
It's scary enough riding in the back of the box, let alone with an untrained driver who is
probably "jacked up" from the call in the first place.
My agency's policy and that of the ambulance company are going to back me up on this.
Aren't medical helicopter pilots not told anything about their patient before seeing them-- so that it doesnt impact their margins of safety? They need to be able to operate the chopper safely with every takeoff, irregardless of the patient condition (pedi, elderly, etc.)
I can tell you want the agencies I dispatch for do.
If they require a driver from the fd, they asked for one, and the captain gives them one if possible. The ff is only allowed to drive COLD - NO LIGHTS, NO SIRENS - into the ambulance's district, where the FF jumps out and let the a waiting medic jump in and leave there HOT - LIGHTS and SIRENS BLARING.
We use this process for the rural volunteer FD,and our city FD. The only difference is the city ff drive straight to the hospital for the medics.
Once we actually left a rural ff standing on the street curb in the hood waiting for his department to send in a vehicle to pick him up; he was lucky the medic who partner was driving to the hospital left him come sit in the ambulance until his ride came.
The helicopter that I use for Heli-Medivacs also has a priority systems to determine what event is more serious then another. Sometimes, there are more serious events going on in the area, and we just have to deal with the fact that we can't use a helicopter.
Oh, and a quick reminder from a pilot I met once. I asked him what the landing zone folks can do to make his job easier. he replied "Stop waving your arms, I see you" and "Don't EVER touch my aircraft for any reason. You need a door open, ask."