Ah, the voices of vested interests. Me too!
I wonder if the quoted expert on spinal trauma, Mr Memering and his lovely wife, were at the accident scene going:
"I'm fine, dont worry about the risks to my spine, I'll be right. In fact, my wife could drive me to the other hospital 120 miles away, no probs. I mean driving is extremly safe, especially since I have just had a car accident. Don't waste the money on my spine boys, warm up the car will you darling whilst I clean up this cut on my face?"
Oh and this gem:
Clayton Shatney conducted a study of 947 patients flown to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and concluded that helicopter service potentially saved the lives of only nine of them
Those nine were worth how much? Oh that's right Clayton Shatney, they were not your children were they? Just as well, so we can be assured that your excellent study is purely objective.
I am not saying that medical air transport should grow out of control, or that it is some how above being reviewed, but I am amazed at the amount of "experts" willing to comment and pass such far reaching judgements. One day, I am going to do a study on trauma medicine centres (because I have flown EMS I am clearly an expert) which will probably shed light on the 100,000 or so deaths that occur in the USA Hospital system each year due to human factors failings. The study will show that if trauma medical experts studied human factors, CRM, decision making, and team management INSTEAD OF the 947 patients that their fellow workers elected to fly in the field, at the heat of the moment, THEN maybe there would be an outcome that benefited thousands of lives instead of 5.
Or thay could just listen to us because all aircrew are experts on all subjects. Just ask us!
