40

CASE 40




Relevant information






Aircraft: Fixed wing. Two stretcher and one seated capacity


Local resources: One land ambulance: Police and voluntary Fire & Rescue Services including experienced remote-clinic nurse


Retrieval options: Major trauma hospital 1.5 hours by air (additional short road transfer from the airport) or 6 hours by road


Other: Nil


Questions




Discussion






40.1 The key here is to consider what is available to you prior to departure. Additional PHR team(s) and equipment may be assembled or immediately available. Taking appropriately packaged O-negative blood would also be highly desirable in this instance. Discuss with the pilot how many patients can be carried and whether things should/could be left at base (e.g. seats, irrelevant equipment etc.) to reduce weight. If there are mission ready ‘major incident’ bags, make sure that you have them on board.

Travelling such a distance allows adequate time for planning and this should not be wasted. Plan to keep in touch with the tasking agency/coordinator for updates on numbers, ages and clinical condition of casualties. Discuss with them what potential local resources are available. How many nurses and paramedics are there? Where is the next nearest healthcare facility? Are additional regional air medical resources available? In essence, this is a primary tasking as patients are likely to have had little input into their care either before or in the clinic. You should discuss frankly the possibility of this becoming a major incident so the coordinator can look into extraordinary resource utilisation (e.g. military assistance). Finally, use the time en route to prepare by drawing up and labelling appropriate drugs, pre-priming fluid infusion lines and developing a pre-hospital plan with your team members.
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Jul 12, 2016 | Posted by in EMERGENCY MEDICINE | Comments Off on 40

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