Flight Medics: Work at Your Own Risk

I was saddened to learn of yet another fatal crash involving a medical flight, when a helicopter in Illinois recently went down, taking the lives of the crew and patients on board, including an infant. It seems like we hear about medical flight crashes so much more than we used to, or so I thought.

Then I came across a recent article in the American Medical News, and realized that the spike in medical flight fatalities is not just a figment of my imagination.

2008 has been a record-setting year for medical flight helicopters, and not in a good way. More people have perished in medical flights this year than any other. The previous high was 18 deaths in 2004, and this year’s total is at 28, after the mid-October tragedy in rural Illinois.

The FAA has not yet identified the common problem, it seems. In fact, according to the article, the circumstances of the year’s seven accidents have been so varied, that there are very few similarities amongst them. The good news is that the FAA suspects that this past year represents a “spike” in accidents as opposed to an ongoing trend.

Hopefully some solutions will be found. Several measures have been proposed, such as special goggles, stricter rules on pilot rest and weather, additional training, and additional instrumentation and technology on the helicopters, according to the AMN article.

If you are a flight medic, I’d love to hear from you. What are your thoughts on the safety of the helicopters? Have you ever had a close call? And will the increase in fatalities cause you to change your career?

I really admire those of you in the field of flight medicine, risking your lives regularly for the lives of others. Practicing emergency medicine seems like it would be stressful enough on the ground, so I certainly can’t imagine practicing it while flying through the air at high speed!