SASless, NEVER in my post do I say anything about ignoring or trivialising the "30" whom have died this year in US HEMS, not for that matter the hundreds over the years in HEMS world wide. These are people who have lost their lives in the service of others and should be remembered as such regardless of the circumstances. Not one of them goes out on the mission with intent to die, they go out with intent to save.
If I could, I would reach through the cyberspace and buy you a beer.
I was, and am, concerned and the "outcry" that occurs after such accidents. We perpetuate that emotive reaction each time we call for X or Y based on a single element of a single accident. I believe it is our place in this industry to explain the VERY HIGH safety levels of HEMS to those outside our domain to alleviate their reaction to the "outcry" that is generated almost entirely by the media.
At the end of the day in the world of media, 40,000+ road deaths are inconsequential to the excitement that can be generated by the stringing together of some helicopter accidents to show an imminent and dangerous threat that MUST be immediately stopped. Only we as an industry stand between that assumption and a call for a more realistic reaction.
We dont even know why the MSP accident happened and we are posting comments like banning HEMS, banning night HEMS, banning Single Pilot HEMS, etc, etc. These reactions from within our industry are amplified outside it, and the call for perspective is drowned out.
The reason our industry is so safe is that we rationally investigate such accidents in detail, analyse the findings and compare trends. Then we can make rational adjustments to the system to improve safety, and so on. Let that process continue.
Sven: the comparison would be more valid per patient intervention rather than per hour. For example, if comparing ambulance transport V helicopter for patients, a per hour representation is not really valid because helicopters are often used over far greater distances than road ambulances -so is it a fair comparison. You may be interested to know that one of our doctors has done such an analysis and helicopter patient transfer (day and night) is safer PER PATIENT than road ambulance under lights and sirens.
As I said at the bottom of the last one, if you really believe the risk of HEMS so unsupportable, you had better fly to work every day and use a helicopter to drop your kids off at school!
Now we have some perspective, lets examine the outcomes from the MSP accident (and those of the other ones) and discuss the ramifications of those. In an emotive way of course, and preferably involving red wine!
