Helicopter!

I spent the day with the hospital's contracted medevac helicopter crew. The flight nurse in charge of the ride-along program gave me a tour of the helicopter and fitted me for a jumpsuit (VERY stylish), helmet, and seatbelt. The inside of the helicopter looks a lot like the inside of an ambulance, except that there are two seats in the back instead of one, and the doors and windows have slightly more complicated latches (obviously). Most of the equipment is the same, but packed into a smaller space.

The morning passed without any calls. The crew was nice and let me set up camp in their living area, so I spent the time catching up on reading and watching TV. Just as I was finishing up my lunch around 12:30, a call came in. We headed out.

Having never been in a helicopter before, I was a bit nervous about the actual flying bit, but it was actually quite a lot of fun. It was rather windy today, though, so the copter was rocking around a lot and dipped a few times, which made the bottom of my stomach drop. The view was absolutely lovely, even for a yucky, rainy March day. I was probably grinning like an idiot for most of the ride.

We flew for about 15 minutes before landing on a school baseball field, where an ambulance crew and firefighters were waiting. The patient was a 67-year old woman in respiratory distress, extremely hypotensive (BP something like 60/45) and unresponsive, but otherwise showing no signs of trauma. The flight nurse and paramedic went into the ambulance and did their assessment, stabilized the patient (I didn't get to watch this), then the firefighters and medics moved the patient from the ambulance stretcher to the helicopter stretcher, into the helicopter, and we took off. I got to sit in the front seat this time, which was even more fun, because the view wasn't obstructed by equipment. Unfortunately, this also meant that I couldn't watch what was happening with the patient, but I could hear what the medics were saying through my headset. At one point the pilot and I had to laugh because the medics were swearing up a storm. Even though the patient was sedated and probably couldn't hear them over the whir of the blades anyway, it was unexpected. Apparently the paramedic had accidentally connected two syringe pumps to each other instead of the to the patient, causing blood in one of the lines to spurt all over the place. He gave me a guilty look when I glanced into the back of the copter, which I also found amusing.

It took another 15 minutes to fly back to the hospital. We landed on the Helipad and wheeled the patient into the ER, where they were waiting for us in a trauma room. We left shortly thereafter, so I really don't know what happened or what the final diagnosis was; I heard the doctor mention something about a CT to rule out stroke, and xray was just coming in to check the placement of the breathing tube while we were leaving.

We flew back to base and I spent the rest of the afternoon working and watching more TV. No other calls came in, so I left around 5. Since the crew averages 1.5 flights a day, I figured it would probably be nighttime when the next call came in. I wasn't disappointed to leave; I was lucky that I got to fly at all.

So, if you ever get the opportunity to fly in a helicopter, I say go for it. It's a thrill ride for sure, but a unique experience, and a fun one, and a great way to see the scenery. I will certainly jump on the chance to ride in one again in the future. :)