First MedEvac

So I had my first MedEvac, well three, actually. We went out late this morning for a downed logger. About 40 minutes outside of Ketchikan, on a mountainside, a logger was falling trees when onekicked back and crushed him, earning a nice femur fracture. The guy apparently laid on the hill for two hours before someone could hear him and called for a bird. So we flew out with another chopper that carried two guys from Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue (which is a bunch of climbing/nature enthusiasts who specialize in rescue situation not unlike TROT or SERT). So we land on a mountain summit that consist of rough gravel and boulders. The area was previous logged and was probably cleared in order to place the crane for pulling the logs up the mountain. The area wasn't any larger than 35 feet by 25 feet. (And yet landing zones for helos in Ohio are 100 x 100?!?) After the other pilot lowered them guys on to the side of a mountain, we pulled the stokes basket out of our chopper and moved it to theirs were it was lowered to the ground. Then once they loaded him both choppers moved down to the logging camp (if that what you want to call it, essentially a gravel/dirt intersection). They lowered the guy via basket and netting 3 miles suspended 150 feet below the chopper. Now that would be one hell of a ride! The guy wasn't really in too bad of shape. Just a compound fracture of the femur no other trauma. Just a little cold.

While unloading the patient from the aforementioned scenario we were dispatched for another call to one of the clinics for a possible stroke. Then when we got back we helped the Sitka crew load logging guy for a trip to Seattle for orthopedic surgery, since our jet was grounded in Seattle for maintenance. So I'm finally getting home at 9p after leaving on the first call a little after 11a.

Sorry no pictures, I promise, I'll get some Helo pics! We contract out with Temsco until our new chopper comes. Temsco has a lot of contracts with the government and military. They fly supplies and people into remote places throughout Alaska. They even fly wildland firefighters in and out of places.

Just an update spoke to my new Fire Chief and am in process getting paywork done and turned back in.

Oh and by the way on the flight back from the hopsital to the helo base I got to chatting with the pilot and he asked about the flight and I mentioned that I wasn't use to landing on tiny pieces of semi-flat land at the top of mountains. His response was "that wasn't even small, we've been in much tighter spots". Craziness I tell you! but it was a blast! And some of the most beautiful scenary. Especially seeing two helos flying over the Pacific in tandom with there shadows bouncing of the water. And I actually got to use a few medic skills!