Air medical journal
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Air medical journal · May 2009
Review Case ReportsCold Hearts: a case study of therapeutic hypothermia in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS).
A 36-year-old white man hit a home run in the seventh inning of a community baseball game. The patient ran the bases successfully and returned to home plate. ⋯ The automated external defibrillator (AED) shocked the patient a total of three times, and he was transported to a local hospital at the basic life support level. Helicopter emergency service (HEMS) was activated by local medical control, and LifeFlight of Maine responded to transfer this patient to a tertiary care center.
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Air medical journal · May 2009
Comparative StudyHEMS vs. EMS transfer for acute aortic dissection type A.
We thought to evaluate the impact of the mode of physician-based transportation (helicopter emergency medical service [HEMS] vs. ground-based emergency medical service [EMS]) on short- and long-term survival among patients suffering acute aortic dissection type A (AADA) as a primary end-point. ⋯ We found no advantage of survival rates among patients suffering from AADA who were transferred by either HEMS or EMS in primary or secondary transport. Although HEMS traveled a distance more than twofold longer than ground-based EMS at the same mission time, HEMS was eightfold more expensive than ground-based EMS in AADA.
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Knowledge of accurate patient weight is vital to safe air medical transport and critical care. Patient weight is often unknown in emergency settings, and visual estimations have been shown to be inaccurate, especially in obese patients. We hypothesized that a simple formula based on anthropometric measurements could accurately predict patient weight for obese adult men and women. ⋯ We have derived and validated simple equations with easy-to-use tables to accurately predict total body weight of obese men and women using only height and arm circumference. These tables may assist air medical transport pilots and medical crews make decisions about which patients may be safely transported, how far they may be transported, how much fuel is required, and how many crewmembers and family members may accompany them.