-----Original Message-----
From:
flightmed-admin@flightweb.com [mailto:flightmed-admin@flightweb.com]On Behalf Of Mark Young
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001
12:01 PM
To: flightmed@flightweb.com
Subject: (no subject)
John
and others,
Since my posting
yesterday, I have receive several
e-mails about “kids
dying all the time” in Denver and my basis for my comment. John seems to
understand what I was referring to, but obviously others did not. Please allow me the opportunity to clarify.
My reference,
although not articulated, was referring to the end of the article where callers
call in for a flight and are under the impression they are getting the closest
helicopter. The program that receives the call many
times advertises that they will send the closest helicopter if they are not the
closest or are not available. However in practice, this does not seem to be the case in most of Colorado.
Some programs stack the flights until they become available and give false
ETA’s, others say sorry we are not available and hang up. There are some that it depends on what day you call and who is
dispatching. It does happen
on a regular basis that a flight program
will overfly another helicopter that is sitting and ready to go. This does
happen in Denver. Unfortunately,
someday someone will die, at a scene of an accident, waiting for a helicopter
that was sent from farther away than the nearest helicopter. This may not be
the fault of the program that sent it, it may be the system. There is no system
in place for someone to call
one number and get the closest. We have to “chopper shop” to find out who is where and how soon
they can be here. In the mean time precious minutes go by.
There is a
growing group advocating a Statewide Comm. Center to help with the problem as
well as many others. There is also a growing group advocating it be written in
rules that the closest be sent.
John, I do agree
with your comment that it would seem that this would not be to hard to do since
both Denver services are dispatched out of the same room.
For
any one who felt offended and felt like
I was insinuating that children die all the time in Denver, please accept my apologies.
I do hope rules can be written that are
in the best interest of the patient and our injured children who may not have a
choice.
Mark Young,
EMT-P
Western RETAC
Well, one would
figure with both programs being dispatched out of the same
room that these
kinds of things could be minimized. I guess not,
especially since
CMC bailed out.
I used to work
for Life Flight in Pittsburgh before I came out here.
Wanted to make
sure the word got out about these situations.
John
Mark Young
From President Bush when asked
what is taking so long to retaliate against the recent attack:
"When I take action I'm not
going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty
tent and hit a camel in the butt."
President of the United States, George W. Bush.
