Injured woman waits two hours for air rescue after crash

[helistar]

An air-rescue fiasco Sunday left a injured woman waiting for medical transport for about two hours.

 

http://www.havasunews.com/articles/2011/08/08/news/doc4e3f7319afaf4840044915.txt

[BOATFIXERGUY]

We were talking about this at the base yesterday and this morning. Based solely on the article, what does it sound like happened?

[helistar]

Sounds like to me Native Air was canceled by Mohave County and for whatever reason sometime later, they opted to then call Careflight... It appears Mohave County and Buckskin which is in LaPaz County was just a little confused about the seriousness of the injuries...

[Gunner]

Article is so vague that i am not willing to make any assumptions. So many variables at play here.... Been in many similar s ituations myself.

[helistar]

Article is so vague that i am not willing to make any assumptions.

 

 

I grew up in the area and attended school at Parker Dam Elementary, which is near where the incident occurred... Small communities out here and it's easy enough to find out what really happened, but I also know that because of the liability involved not to much will be said publicly, because the courts will be sorting it out...

[Wally]

From the article:

"The five firefighters aboard the fireboat arrived 31 minutes later, at 1:09 p.m. after having some difficulty locating her on the water. Once located, firefighters worked to ready her for medical helicopter evacuation for a possible pelvis fracture, said Battalion Chief James Whitt."

 

"Whitt said at first Native Air was called to respond. And then, for some reason, Native Air was cancelled. Next, Careflight was called to respond and provided emergency responders with an estimated time or arrival, or ETA, of seven to nine minutes."

 

"The woman was airlifted from the area of the scene at 2:22 p.m. and flown to Palm Springs, Calif."

 

The emergency services couldn't get to the patient for 41 minutes, a big piece of "two hours". Patients don't have "fly me" stickers, so the EMS guys would have to evaluate before calling for air transport.

Time of lift for transport, 1422, less estimated time of accident, 1228, less 41 minutes, results in 1:13, not "2 hours". Eight minutes enroute, evaluate, package and load, ten minutes, 55 minutes delay, some of which would have been spent by EMS doing what they had to do. I have been on scene for hours while they extracted a patient or brought somebody to us from the woods, canyons, wherever. If the patient was still in the water...

 

I wonder why Native was called and cancelled while Careflight had to service their aircraft?

Edited August 9, 2011 by Wally

[BOATFIXERGUY]

Time of lift for transport, 1422, less estimated time of accident, 1228, less 41 minutes, results in 1:13, not "2 hours". Eight minutes enroute, evaluate, package and load, ten minutes, 55 minutes delay, some of which would have been spent by EMS doing what they had to do. I have been on scene for hours while they extracted a patient or brought somebody to us from the woods, canyons, wherever. If the patient was still in the water...

 

I wonder why Native was called and cancelled while Careflight had to service their aircraft?

 

From the vague article, we've had to do a little damage control despite having nothing to do with the "fiasco." I won't comment on what Careflite did or didn't do as I have no idea.

 

No one knows why Native 6 (my base) was cancelled. My crews heard the initial 911 call come out on the radio and were in the bird ready to go, waiting for Fire to request a bird. From start to the scene would have been 7 minutes max for us. Careflight was returning from a call and still needed to service their bird (fuel, o2, med stuff, etc).

 

Both Fire Depts requested us by name. Somewhere in the loop, someone decided they wanted Careflight. I could care less whom they call. It's about patient care. Call the aircraft that can get there the fastest.

 

Sounds like politics at the expense of the patient.

[helistar]

 

Sounds like politics at the expense of the patient.

 

Winner... Winner... Winner... Welcome to the river...

Politics at the expense of the general public is a lot more common than you would ever think or hear of along the river...

 

Here's one you probably never heard of, nor was it reported in the papers... Mayor at the time owns a successful company and is the only supplier in town, city makes a land swap with a large realtor based on a requirement to install power-line to property and dirt road being paved to property near airport. Realtor sells property to large corporation who will be a business competitor of mayors company, city refuses to pave road and install power to property line per agreement, costing the community 25 jobs paying an average of $20 per hour. Company decides to locate in another city along the river. Company sues city and settles out of court for 10 million of tax payers money...

[Goldy]

 

Sounds like politics at the expense of the patient.

 

Politics and confusion. Often caused by one department passing info to another, to another and pretty soon, you don't even have a need anymore. I see the confusion and politics piece all the time in LA. However, it usually results in an OVER response.

 

Sunday we had a simple call. Gal walking got overheated along a dirt fire road. Two of our rescue trucks responded and were on scene in 10 minutes. Meanwhile, FD rolls two engines, a squad, a patrol rig, and a helicopter. USFS figures they need to be there too so off goes a USFS engine and LE rig. You would have thought it was a building collapse with all the rigs. Down here it's all about keeping your statistics (call rate) high to justify your taxpayer expense.

 

Oh yeah, they (FD) chose to air evac her out using a winch rescue.

[Gomer Pylot]

We don't get a lot of that stuff here. It's mostly local volunteer fire departments, and the state has already cut them to the bone. The firefighters tend to know the people in the area, and want to do what is best for the patient, nevermind the stats or the cost. The EMS services are pretty much the same, and there are multiple trucks/ambulances only if they are needed and requested from nearby VFDs or EMS services. They mostly call us only if they see a true need, although we do get some calls where the patient isn't that bad, but if they err on the side of caution, so be it. Lots of older people around here, so we get a fair proportion of cardiac/stroke calls, and we can help with those. Usually, the higher the population in the area, the more it resembles the descriptions above, and the population isn't that high where I work. Less drama, less excitement, more boredom. It still beats working for a living.

[BOATFIXERGUY]

Politics and confusion. Often caused by one department passing info to another, to another and pretty soon, you don't even have a need anymore. I see the confusion and politics piece all the time in LA. However, it usually results in an OVER response.

 

Sunday we had a simple call. Gal walking got overheated along a dirt fire road. Two of our rescue trucks responded and were on scene in 10 minutes. Meanwhile, FD rolls two engines, a squad, a patrol rig, and a helicopter. USFS figures they need to be there too so off goes a USFS engine and LE rig. You would have thought it was a building collapse with all the rigs. Down here it's all about keeping your statistics (call rate) high to justify your taxpayer expense.

 

Oh yeah, they (FD) chose to air evac her out using a winch rescue.

 

That reminds of of that cartoon on Youtube (can't find it) where a woman has a flat or something...they roll fire and everyone else including a helo then transport her across the street!