The Truth About Medevacs

A blog that informs consumers about the services, process and procedures of medevac flights.

Welcome to The Truth About Medevacs. My name is Mike and I am a pilot for Air Evac Lifeteam. I have noticed that there is a lot of confusion about medevac flights among patients and their families. I am hoping this blog will help answer some questions, dispel some myths and help you get the most out of your flight.

The Flight Process

Air Ambulance Services: How to Choose the Right Air Ambulance Company

Not every air ambulance company operates in the same way or has the same standards. The medical crew you fly with can make all the difference in your care and comfort as a patient. This article is designed to help you understand what to…

Our Mission

The Medevac Truth Blog is committed to educating consumers about the services, process, and procedures of medevac flights. Our goal is to provide a resource for those seeking information on air ambulance services. We hope that by making this information available, we can help consumers make informed decisions when choosing an air ambulance company.

Who We Are

Over the course of our decades long career in the industry, we’ve noticed a recurring theme: there is a lack of quality information available for consumers on the internet about how medevac flights work.

We’ve seen first-hand the frustration that can occur when people simply don’t know what to expect during a medevac flight. This inspired us to create a blog that provides information specific to medevac flights. Here you can find answers to your most pressing questions regarding air ambulances, including:

What are my options? What should I consider when choosing an air ambulance provider? What should I expect during the flight? How do I pay for the flight?

In addition to ensuring that you have access to up-to-date and reliable sources of information, we hope that this blog will inspire you to share your own experiences with medevac flights.

When someone is faced with a critical illness or injury, time is of the essence. Medevac flights are designed to be fast and efficient in transporting patients to the proper medical care, but there are a lot of moving parts that go into getting patients from Point A to Point B. For example, medevac flights must be coordinated between the patient’s care team and medical transport team, as well as comply with the rules and regulations of all relevant aviation authorities.

The Truth About Medevacs blog aims to educate consumers about medevac services. The blog content below focuses on answering some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about AirMed International services.

A medical emergency is a frightening experience. An emergency medevac flight can be even more frightening. Most people never fly in an emergency medical situation, until they need to. At that time, they do not have the advantage of research, preparation and knowledge.

My name is Joe Saxton and I own and operate Angel MedFlight Worldwide Air Ambulance Services, a company that provides air ambulance and medevac flights for patients around the world. I have spent the last fifteen years of my life building a company in a relatively obscure niche of the travel industry called air ambulance or medevac flights.

In this blog I will share information about our unique industry. I will address topics from services provided on board our aircraft to the financial implications of using an emergency transport company like ours and everything in between.

Our hope is that this blog will provide you with accurate and up-to-date information about emergency medical transport so that when it’s time to make an informed decision you will have access to the right information at your fingertips.

I welcome your comments, questions and topics you’d like to see addressed here on Fly Fi – The Truth About Medevacs!

So you’re thinking about flying in an air ambulance. Maybe you’ve been told you need to be transported by medevac to a hospital far from home, or maybe your loved one has suffered a debilitating injury and needs to be flown back to the United States for treatment.

Flying in an air ambulance is certainly something that should not be taken lightly. Air ambulances, or “medevacs,” are expensive, and sometimes they are recommended even when other forms of travel could be used. So it’s important that consumers understand the difference between a medevac flight and something like commercial airline travel.

On this website we will help consumers learn about the process and procedures for flying in an air ambulance, as well as what consumers should look for when evaluating medevac services. If you are considering flying with an air ambulance company, we recommend that you take a moment to become familiar with what goes into arranging these flights and how to tell if the services offered by a particular company are right for you.

A Medevac flight, also known as an air ambulance, is an organized medical transport of a patient from one location to another via aircraft. This type of transportation is often used by patients who are critically ill or severely injured and need to be transported from one medical facility to another in order to receive the best treatment for their condition.

It is common for a patient who requires this type of service to be transferred from a smaller hospital in a rural area to a larger hospital that specializes in the care they need. In some cases, patients may be transported domestically or internationally depending on where the closest facility is.

Medevac flights are often used for patients who are suffering from life-threatening injuries and illnesses such as:

severe traumatic brain injury**

intubated patients with breathing tubes**

coma patients**

trauma victims**

burn victims**

stroke victims**

heart attack victims**

overdoses (typically involving drugs)**

organ transplant recipients**

In the movie “Apocalypse Now” a character is asked “do you want to fly helicopters?” The reply was: “I don’t want to fly helicopters. I want to SR-71 Blackbirds.”

SR-71s are awesome, but I can’t afford one. Instead, I want to fly the next best thing – an F-16 Falcon. F-16s are fast and maneuverable, and unlike most fighters, you can even take your friends along for the ride. However, since they aren’t sold on the open market, my only shot at flying one is as a member of the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve.

Since I don’t have any military experience, becoming a pilot isn’t going to happen. But after reading about the AGR (Active Guard Reserve) program online at GoANG.com, I learned it’s possible for civilians to apply for jobs in the Guard and Reserve units. If selected after an interview process, the individual may spend 1 weekend each month training with their unit while keeping their full time civilian job. The 1 weekend per month will also include 2 weeks of training each year with the unit.

For me it all comes down to cost vs benefit. What kind of benefits would I get from joining?