A recent ambulance call at my home went very bad, but that's another story. This story is about what's best for the patient, not what's easiest for the EMT.
A girl had heat stroke a serious medical emergency while visiting. She was out in the 110 degree weather we had and wasn't used to our Arizona heat.
It's 45 minutes from Dolan to KRMC, Kingman Regional Medical Center by ground ambulance. This patient did not need a level one trauma center, any ER can handle heat a stroke patient.
When the LMRFD ambulance left my home rather than rush her to KRMC they called a helicopter from Las Vegas. It was a 30 minute flight time just to get to the fire station in Dolan, and remember the helicopter had not left Vegas when the ambulance left my home.
Then there's the time to land and load the patient, say 10 minutes. Add the 30 minute flight time back to Las Vegas, then the helicopter was diverted to another hospital, add another 10 minutes...
So rather than 45 minutes to KRMC ER, they drove a mile to the LMRFD fire station in Dolan and sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the helicopter.... Good Choice?
What do you think was best for the patient? An 80 to 90 minute
helicopter ride for $25,000, or a 45 minute ambulance ride to Kingman.
What was best for the patient?
No comments:
Post a Comment