Re: Attn Colorado Services

[Robert J Licata <blicata@ruralhealth.org>]

Jason makes a good point, 911 should be called to mobilize the ground units
in case the air units can not make it. One problem with using cell phones
is they might hit a cell tower that sends their call into a call center
that is not familiar with the area they are calling from. A GPS reading
should help if the call center is familiar with how a GPS unit works and
what to do with the readings.
My understanding of the MAST unit out of Colorado Springs is they only
fly if an agency has a prearranged agreement to respond to a request. 
If there is not an agreement it could take many hours for them to respond
if they get permission to fly. I am not aware of any agencies over
here that have that agreement. We do not perform long line rescue (fun
and exciting, just to risky). We do move SAR closer to victims so they
can start to extricate them to an LZ. We can move five to seven SAR members
with each trip. Just one of the luxuries of flying in a 412.
There is an Air National Guard unit in Eagle County that does long
line rescues. One draw back is they may have minimally trained medical
personnel on board. They fly at the request of the local EMS or SAR agency.
We have done some rendezvous with them in the past.
We have a policy stating that when we are called into an area by someone
other than a 911 dispatch center or EMS agency we notify that county that
we are responding into their area. That usually triggers a response of
their local responders be that EMS or SAR. Are there other flight services
that have the same policy and does it work? We have had good luck.
Bob

 
 
 

Jason Huffman wrote:

Your best bet is to simply call 911. At that point you should get the closest EMS agency, and in turn they will contact the most appropriate mode of transportation. MAST out of Ft Carson in C. Springs does a lot of SAR and can extract you off of a side of a mountain should you need it. Other than that the other helicopter programs do not have hoists (as far as I know) for that kind of work. Please bring your orange, as the big game season will be in full swing, and I will be there too.
Jason Huffman, RN, BSN
AirLife-Denver
Safety and Survival Coordinator
On Tue, 30 October 2001, Jneff71@aol.com wrote:

>
> If anyone in the Colorado / Gunnison area could offer some information.  I
> and 5 others are headed to the mountains to spend the next 12 days packing in
> the back country anywhere from the Kebler Pass to Black Canyon to possibly as
> far east as Mt. Antero and Shavano Pk. We estimate we will probably be more
> than 8 miles as the crow flies from the nearest roads at any given time.  We
> will of course have all appropriate emergency supplies...EXCEPT a
> helicopter...its tough to get one of those in my frame pack...  ;)
> I'd like to get the phone numbers of any helicopter services, be it SAR or
> EMS in the area in the event we need to run into town for groceries, take in
> a day of high mountain skiing...or have an unplanned medical/trauma
> emergency.  Although roughing it, I still keep my GPS and my cell phone and
> any other technical do-dads designed to get our hiney's out of a jam with me.
> You may email me back channel if you like.
> Thanks in advance
> Josh
>
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> Flightmed mailing list

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