Air medical journal
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Regionalized trauma networks have been established in England to centralize specialist care at dedicated centers of excellence throughout the country. Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) in the West Midlands region have been redesigned to form an integrated component of such systems. The continued use of such valuable and scarce resources for medical emergencies requires evaluation. ⋯ Dynamic solutions are needed to ensure that HEMS support for cases of medical emergency are appropriately targeted to incidents in which clinical benefit is conferred to the patient. Intelligent tasking of appropriate resources has the potential to improve the HEMS response to medical emergencies while optimizing the availability of resources to respond to other incidents, most notably cases of major trauma.
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Management of an acutely ill pediatric patient with undifferentiated altered mental status is a common challenge facing air medical crewmembers. The transport team is often the vital link between the referring agency and a tertiary care center; it is incumbent upon the team to be able to meet the challenges of patient management including airway management, providing hemodynamic support, and addressing presenting symptoms. ⋯ His hospital course is described and reveals an encephalopathy caused by the Bartonella henselae bacterium also known as cat-scratch disease. This case shows the pathology, symptomology, and management along with the importance of proper management and interventions by air medical crewmembers to maximize outcomes.
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Air medical journal · May 2015
Prevalence of intubation rescue by air medical personnel during transfers from rural emergency departments.
Non-emergency-trained providers in rural emergency departments (ED) often lack the skills required for emergency resuscitations and rely on air medical transport teams to provide the initial airway stabilization of these patients. In this study, we determined the prevalence with which endotracheal intubations are required of air medical personnel upon arrival to rural EDs including intubations that were first attempted by the local provider. ⋯ Our study suggests that the vast majority of the intubations for patients requiring a helicopter evacuation from these rural settings are performed by the air medical personnel.