Question for the Flight Medics

[Sizz]

Hey all

I'm curious as to how much ground experience you each had before going flight and 2ndly what is your companies weight limit. I'm seeing most around 215 pounds w/ jump suit and helm on. I totally understand this but I've see a few larger flight medics 240ish or so , just wondering.

 

[Shishkabob]

Both experience and weight pretty much depend on the company.

Experience I've seen is typically 3+ years in a busy, and aggressive, 911 system, plus many flight medics I've seen are also either RTs or RNs, depending.

 

[akflightmedic]

Weight is dependent upon the craft being utilized.

However some companies just have a corporate wide weight policy regardless of craft so as not to show any discrimination...it is much easier when it is just a company wide policy, especially if they change craft in the future.

Weight is important because the pilot needs to do fuel calculations. By having maximums on the crew, he never has to guess that calculation as he can use the same fixed standard.

This helps him out greatly because the one unknown variable is the patient...you do not know how much the patient or patients weight until on scene.

As for experience, this again is company dependent. I have seen neophytes score a flight gig and I have seen old salts turned away. These days there seems to be no rhyme or reason but I will say this.

The companies that will take anyone...there is a reason for this. As the increase in HEMS company occurs, eyeballing the bottom line is key to survivability. Therefore, some companies practice unsafe operations. Newbies so anxious to fly will take any job and allow this to continue. These companies also have screwy pay scales or practices. Again, the medics lined up to suffer this abuse and risk their lives is long because everyone wants to be a hero.

Historically and typically, it takes a minimum of 3-5 years of high volume ALS experience to be considered for a flight position. You also need the alphabet soup along with instructor credentials to stand out. A college degree is very valuable especially with the high number of candidates without one.

 

[usafmedic45]

I'm curious as to how much ground experience you each had before going flight

Let's see....nine years as a respiratory therapist, over a decade in EMS nearly all of it as an ALS provider and a large chunk of it as a supervisor and a couple years of flight RT (more or less, flight "paramedic" given the breadth of our scope of practice) experience from the military during OEF.

I'm seeing most around 215 pounds w/ jump suit and helm on. I totally understand this but I've see a few larger flight medics 240ish or so , just wondering.

At that weight, you're going to be limited to mostly the fixed-wing operations (which are better to work for since you're less likely to die in the line of the duty and you actually have the time and room to work on the patient) or those HEMS operators with dual-engine aircraft.

and 2ndly what is your companies weight limit

We do not have a hard and fast one per se, but I was advised to not put on any more weight (and I tip the scales at 185 lbs in boots and flight suit). Keep in mind I work for a fixed wing operation.

As the increase in HEMS company occurs, eyeballing the bottom line is key to survivability.

Except in terms of crew survival.

Therefore, some companies practice unsafe operations.

Examples:
-Hospital Wing
-Air Evac Lifeteam
-Maryland State Police


That said, I will repost something I had said in an earlier thread by someone with similar aspirations to yourself:

Snce you are doing this to check it out as a possible career, keep in mind you're talking about a career path that involves a 40-some (46% if memory serves me) chance of being involved in an accident that results in the death or serious injury of yourself or someone else on board over the course of a twenty year period...assuming you can handle the stress, noise (kiss your tone-based hearing goodbye), deaths of friends and colleagues, low pay, long hours, etc of the job to last that long. It's not fun and games: the bulls**t that you hear about ground ambulance services still goes on, only it's amplified because if they tell the pilot "fly or you're fired" (they won't admit to it for legal reasons, but it happens quite frequently both directly and indirectly) and you take off into weather you have no business being up in the chances of you living through it are not good.

It's not a "gee-whiz guys, what a cool thing", "get in da chopper" sort of thing. Contrary to what you hear from aeromedical services (especially the for-profit ones) there is no evidence HEMS makes any difference in outcomes for patients, especially those flown directly from scenes, unless you are otherwise facing a prolonged (>90 minutes in most cases) ground transport. Calling for the helicopter actually DELAYS getting the patient to the hospital in most cases. So ask yourself-and think about this long and hard: am I willing to die to no make a difference for a patient? Am I willing to put my parents/girlfriend/wife through the grief of outliving me so I can have a "cool job"? These are not things the average 18-22 year old (taking a guess on your age since I recall you being a college student), let alone with the risk taking tendencies that leads to an interest in EMS in the first place, ask themselves or even have cross their minds. Just remember, it's not a game, it's not an adventure: it's a deadly serious occupation. Ask Steve Bunker, Dell Waugh, Sandra Pearson, James Taylor, Jana Bishop, Michael Sanchez or Darren Bean how much of a "get in da chopper" sort of world HEMS is. Oh wait...you can't because they are all the friends I lost in one year to HEMS crashes. The full toll for that year (not counting several patients killed as well) according to the National EMS Memorial was:
1-Steve Bunker
2-Dell Waugh
3-Sandy Pearson
4-James Taylor
5-Jana Bishop
6-Michael Sanchez
7-Darren Bean
8-Ronald Battiato
9-William Mann
10-Bruce Harrolle
11-Mickey Lippy
12-Tonya Mallard (a ground EMT killed while riding along with Maryland State Police hauling two patients with MINOR injuries from a MVA; both patients were walking around talking on their cell phones before the helicopter showed up).
13-Roger Warren
14-Wade Weston
15-Tom Caldwell
16-Tom Clausing
17-Patrick Graham
18-Shawn Shreeve
19-Wayne Kirby
20-Stephanie Waters
21-Mark Coyne
22-Steve Lipperer
23-Robert Goss
24-Raul Garcia

Being a flight paramedic on a medical helicopter usually ranks at the top of "most dangerous occupations" right behind commercial loggers and Bering Sea fisherman. In 2008 being a flight paramedic/nurse was the deadliest job in America. Someone should do a show "Deadliest Medically Unnecessary Transports"....

Sorry if that all seemed a little heavy-handed. I just want you to have a honest and (more importantly) fact-based view of what you think you want to get yourself into. In closing, if you really want to fly, do it on a fixed-wing service. You will be much safer and your life insurance premiums will be a lot less as a result.

SOURCE: http://emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=17552

 

[Sizz]

Let's see....nine years as a respiratory therapist, over a decade in EMS nearly all of it as an ALS provider and a large chunk of it as a supervisor and a couple years of flight RT (more or less, flight "paramedic" given the breadth of our scope of practice) experience from the military during OEF.



At that weight, you're going to be limited to mostly the fixed-wing operations (which are better to work for since you're less likely to die in the line of the duty and you actually have the time and room to work on the patient) or those HEMS operators with dual-engine aircraft.


We do not have a hard and fast one per se, but I was advised to not put on any more weight (and I tip the scales at 185 lbs in boots and flight suit). Keep in mind I work for a fixed wing operation.



Except in terms of crew survival.


Examples:
-Hospital Wing
-Air Evac Lifeteam
-Maryland State Police


That said, I will repost something I had said in an earlier thread by someone with similar aspirations to yourself:


SOURCE: http://emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=17552

Thank you for the reply this really puts it in prospective. Is there a particular reason the death rate is so high are these mostly weather related accidents, poor pilots or just freak accidents? I'm assuming the majority of them are weather related. Does anyone ever survive these helicopter crashes or is it pretty much death to all aboard? I'll research this on the web some but from your experiance?

 

[usafmedic45]

Is there a particular reason the death rate is so high are these mostly weather related accidents, poor pilots or just freak accidents?

Bad weather and pressure to fly in marginal conditions (implicit or implied "fly or we will find someone who will" orders from the companies) are the big two. Poor pilot decision making is another major problem, but most of the pilots are more than technically competent to be flying. Two of the pilots I listed earlier (Dell and Steve) both were two of the best pilots I knew. They were just victims of bad situations and work overload. The only crash I can think of where the pilot simply should never have been approved to fly was the one in Doland, SD a few years back. Flying on instruments with a single pilot increases the workload to a point of it being a bad idea and this is the standard practice for the vast majority of HEMS operations.

Does anyone ever survive these helicopter crashes or is it pretty much death to all aboard?

There are a few crashes (and a lot of the aviation equivalent of fender benders; most aviation accidents do not seriously injure anyone contrary to popular opinion) with survivors. At least one of members of this board is a survivor of a major crash. However, the chances of surviving a crash that results in one or more deaths is not good at all. Myself and several others are working to try to make crashes more survivable but it will take time, money and an industry that wants to make the changes.

Currently we have neither the money nor the compliance of the industry (because of cost) with even the basic standards to reduce the frequency of crashes, let alone getting them to work on reducing the severity of injuries to their crews. It will take the FAA mandating the changes- which will likely happen within the next couple of years- but that will in turn likely decimate the industry (not that it is a bad thing to get rid of the less safety conscious operators out there) and reduce the opportunities for those who want to work in HEMS.