At an car accident, when should life flight helicopter be called?

Question

severe history of heart attacks, strokes, amputations, and an dialysis patient, that was my husband..entrapped in his vehicle for hour and a half...died after extricating him from vehicle...No life flight was called..WHY?

Answer 1

consider the weather at the recovery site, and enroute...

we generally are called to polytraumas, and highway accidents which usually mean several and bad injuries.

anytime the airbag get deployed, it is wise to call in the HEMS.

however it depends from the assesment done by the medical staff at the #112

celebral injuries, spine injuries, fall injuries, multiple broken bones, drowning, burns are the typical GO inputs.

Generally you dont receive the anamnesis of the patients at the recovery, or at the 112 emergency call, so basically you cannot use the anamnesis to solve the go-no go relative to the anamnesis. The past history of injuries and heart attacks generally does not pose a priority to the HEMS since they are considered as treated and healed. The overall assesment is done relative to the actual status of the injured person.

Answer 2

You'll have to ask the EMT and rescue people who were on the scene.  Most likely, there was no 'Life Flight' unit  available at the time/location of your husband's accident.

Answer 3

I fly life-flight helicopters and each State/County/EMS have their requirements/protocol for calling a helicopter to a scene.

Usually, we are put on stand-by when there is an accident, where there is a possibility of trauma or other serious health risks and weather permitting, we launch the aircraft as soon as we can after we are put on stand-by, usually we are in the air in less than 5 minutes.

If we are enroute and no longer needed, the EMS will notify us and our dispatch center and we return to base.

Not all aircraft/pilots will launch on a stand-by, some wait until there is a request for response.

In your husbands case, you would have to know if there is a trauma center within a short drive, weather conditions at the helicopter's location, expected weather conditions for the flight time to the accident scene and then to the nearest trauma center, whether the helicopter that covers the area was available or on another flight, etc.

The first responder on the scene is the one who makes the decision to call life-flight or not. You should ask whoever was in charge at the scene why the helicopter was not called or if it was called, why it wasn't available.

I hope this information helps.

Answer 4

Is it possible that weather was a factor? or you were with in a few miles of a trauma center. Sorry to hear about your loss but there may have been lots of reasons for no life flight

I have to tell you that the First Responders, EMTs and Police Officers that responded have been rethinking this situation almost as much as you have. after being with someone that looses there life you do not just go back to business as usual you dream about it you wake up making these same decisions. Make sure you dig all the way into this situation if you are going to ask them questions. most of the time these Hero's have to fight with the decision to follow protocol's set-up by some one with no Practical knowledge. I truly hope this helps.