Did You Know, That Most Medical Evacuations Are Done By Helicopter? Learn More About Medevacs: A blog about the important role of medical helicopter services for patient care.
Have you ever been in an accident? Are you aware of any accidents that have occurred involving your friends or family members? Chances are you may not know this, but in many cases, the reason they survived is because they were medevaced to a hospital.
What is a medevac? A medevac is a medical evacuation by helicopter. We do not know how many people are transported by air ambulances every year, but we do know that it occurs often and that there are several types of medevacs.
A medivac may be called when someone is injured or becomes ill and needs to be transported to a hospital as quickly as possible. Typically, these people may be in critical condition. Some reasons why medivacs may be called include: auto accidents, motorcycle accidents, severe burns, heart attacks, pregnancy complications and more.
Medivacs have saved countless lives over the years with their remarkable speed and efficiency. In fact, there have been numerous reports of people surviving when they otherwise would not have had it not been for the immediate medical care provided
Did You Know, That Most Medical Evacuations Are Done By Helicopter? Learn More About Medevacs: A blog about the important role of medical helicopter services for patient care.
Helicopters are faster than fixed-wing aircraft and they can reach patients in hard to access places. For example, think about a helicopter landing on a mountain top or on a freeway. Helicopters do not need runways for take off and landing, so they have an advantage over fixed-wing aircraft.
A helicopter is able to hover in one place as it waits for paramedics to load a patient. This is very important in situations when time really matters. It is also important if there is no smooth surface for landing close to the patient.
Did You Know, That Most Medical Evacuations Are Done By Helicopter? Learn More About Medevacs: A blog about the important role of medical helicopter services for patient care.
We all know that the helicopter is a very useful tool in many areas such as police, firefighting and military operations. But one area we may not think of is how vital a role helicopters play in the medical field.
Helicopters are used to transport patients to and from hospitals, or between hospitals for higher level care; this is known as an “emergency medical service flight” or “medevac flight”. The term “medevac” was coined when the US Army started using helicopters to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefield during the Korean War. That use of helicopters became so critical that it gave rise to its own name, which is now used by emergency services throughout the world.
But how often do medevac flights occur? It turns out they are more common than we may realize. According to a 2008 study by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, there were over 500,000 medevac flights in the United States alone that year. And there have been over 6 million medevac flights since 1978!
Did You Know, That Most Medical Evacuations Are Done By Helicopter?
Learn More About Medevacs: A blog about the important role of medical helicopter services for patient care.
A medevac helicopter is a helicopter that is used to transport patients in need of emergency medical care. These helicopters will typically be flown to the location of the patient and then transported to a hospital. If a patient needs immediate assistance then the flight may go directly from the site of transport to a hospital. This is often times done when patients are injured in remote locations or are in need of immediate care.
The main goal of a medevac helicopter flight is to get the patient to appropriate medical care as quickly as possible. A medevac flight generally has two paramedics on board who are able to provide care during flight. It also has specialized equipment on board that will help keep the patient stabilized during flight so that they can receive more treatment when they arrive at their destination.
Some common reasons why patients are transported via medevac helicopters include:
Injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents
Traumatic injuries stemming from falls
Patients with severe burns
Strokes or heart attacks
The first thing that paramedics will do when they arrive on scene is assess the patient’s
Did You Know, That Most Medical Evacuations Are Done By Helicopter?
Learn More About Medevacs: A blog about the important role of medical helicopter services for patient care.
Medical helicopters are also called air ambulances, medevac helicopter or just “chopper” for short. They provide high quality emergency and non-emergency medical transportation from one healthcare facility to another.
The first medivac helicopter was used in 1943 on the island of New Guinea during World War II. The chopper transported a wounded soldier to safety in just 15 minutes. That’s a record that has not been broken since!
In the 1950’s, medevac helicopters started being used more frequently by the military and were eventually used in civilian hospitals to transport accident victims and other critically ill patients.
Medical helicopters usually carry a pilot, flight nurse and paramedic as well as sophisticated life support equipment (like a ventilator). This gives critically injured patients access to immediate care during transport.
The flight crew is specially trained to handle difficult situations; like those that occur at night or in rugged terrain. The pilots constantly train and practice precision flying, so they can land safely even when they can’t see their landing zone clearly. The nurses and
Did You Know, That Most Medical Evacuations Are Done By Helicopter? Learn More About Medevacs
A blog about the important role of medical helicopter services for patient care.
What is a Medevac?
A medevac is a medical evacuation that involves the transfer or transport of patients to hospitals. The most common form of medical evacuation involves a helicopter, but they can also use fixed-wing aircraft or ground ambulances.
Medical evacuations are done in all types of medical conditions and by various organizations. They are often done by military organizations, such as the US military or United Nations peace keeping forces. Other times they can be done by disaster response teams and for those who were injured in the line of duty such as police officers, firefighters, first responders and more. They can even be done for patients who are in need of specialized care who may not be able to receive it at their local hospital. Sometimes this is required because the local hospital does not have the facilities to treat certain injuries or illnesses. The patient then needs to be transferred to a hospital that does have these facilities. There are also other reasons why a medevac may be required such as needing to transfer organs from one location to another for transplantation purposes or transferring prisoners from
The helicopter has had a profound impact on modern warfare, particularly in the casualty evacuation role. The ability to land and take off vertically, known as VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing), allows helicopters to be deployed to areas where fixed-wing aircraft cannot perform. The Vietnam War is notable for being the first war in which helicopters became a mainstay of the military.
The key advance was the Bell 47J Ranger of 1947, which was the world’s first gas turbine powered helicopter. The Bell 47J could hover out of ground effect at 1,000 ft (300 m) altitude, climb at 750 ft/min (3.8 m/s) and cruise at 115 mph (100 knots, 185 km/h). These impressive numbers meant that it could fly across the battlefield with ease and deliver troops or wounded soldiers to anywhere there was a clearing big enough for it to land in. Most importantly its design meant that any soldier could learn how to fly it in a matter of hours, whereas flying fixed wing aircraft required months of training. This meant that whole armies could be trained to fly helicopters and Medevac crews could be established right there in the combat zone.[38]
The first use of the helicopter in combat was by the United States during World War II