MEDICAL SUPPORT CONSULTING
Follow Us
  • Home
  • Services
  • Solutions
  • Advantages
  • Medical Training
    • Training Resources
    • Training Videos
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Patients deaths linked to inadequate helicopter interior

6/9/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Maria Babbage
The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Ornge failed to do its job when it spent $6 million on medical interiors for its new helicopters that didn't allow paramedics to perform CPR and other life-saving procedures at all times, a former top executive testified Wednesday.

Tom Lepine, who was fired as Ornge's chief operating officer, said he only discovered the problem with the medical interiors of the AW-139 helicopters in late 2010, after the first chopper went into service.

Ornge paid $144 million for 12 helicopters from Italian firm AgustaWestland, whose dealings with Ornge have come under intense scrutiny. It also paid $6 million for the Swiss-manufactured Aerolite medical interiors.

Lepine, a former paramedic, acknowledged that Ornge didn't ensure that the helicopter interiors were suitable when it made the deal.

"I think it was an absolute failure of process that there was no prototype done," he told a legislative committee.

"That would have been caught if we had done a prototype and it was not done."

Full Story: http://www.ems1.com/air-medical-transport/articles/1295689-5-incidents-resulting-in-patient-death-linked-to-ORNGE-helicopter-interiors/


0 Comments

Ex-medic gets $1.5M settlement for New Orleans ambulance injury

4/15/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans paramedic received more than $1.5 million from Medtec Ambulance Corp. for injuries incurred while treating a patient in the back of an ambulance.

A federal jury found that Medtec was responsible for the design of the bench seat that caused the injuries of paramedic Ryan Earls, 26, in Dec. 2010, according to The Times-Picayune.

Earls was working on a gunshot victim when the ambulance reportedly hit a bump, causing the bench to collapse, said his attorney, David Oestreicher.

He was removed from the ambulance at the hospital, having sustained nerve damage as well as bulging discs in his back, NOLA.com said.

The seat had "imploded," said Earls's partner, paramedic Matthew Alewine, who was driving one of the 15 Medtec ambulances leased for 10 years to New Orleans Emergency Medical Services in 2010.

Earls returned to work as a dispatcher after the accident but could not do his job because of his nerve damage, and the city fired him in Jan., Ostreicher told NOLA.com.

The jury's award to Earls included $200,000 for his loss of future wages and benefits, $600,000 in medical expenses and $700,000 for his pain and suffering.
http://www.ems1.com/ambulances-emergency-vehicles/articles/1271324-Ex-paramedic-gets-settlement-for-New-Orleans-ambulance-injury/

0 Comments

Paramedic dies from injuries after falling from overpass

2/10/2012

0 Comments

 
SHIRLINGTON, Va. (USA)

An Alexandria paramedic who fell from a cement barrier along Interstate 395 on Wednesday night has died, according to the Alexandria Fire Department.
Joshua Weissman who suffered a severe head injury in the fall, died at 4:25 p.m. Thursday. Weismann had been responding to a car fire near South Glebe Road in Shirlington when he fell into a rocky creek below the interstate.

0 Comments

How to safely land an helicopter

2/2/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
http://photos.markusherzig.com
Our colleagues from REGA perform hundreds of medical evacuations every year.
Watch the video they prepared on how to safely land helicopters.

2 Comments

Sometimes it's better to stay at home....

1/30/2012

1 Comment

 
1 Comment

Helicopter accidents - can new rules save lives ?

1/29/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
http://genevalunch.com
_












Time Magazine published this article in 2009
(http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1876095,00.html#ixzz1kpOhgMXo)
The article claims that EMS helicopters in the U.S. are not adequately equipped for medical missions and that many of the accidents could have been prevented if the following measures had been implemented:
  • Mandatory requirement for a 2 pilot crew ( less cockpit workload )
  • Mandatory requirement for IFR certified and IFR current pilots.
  • Mandatory requirement for TCAS and GPWS ( Traffic Collision Avoidance System & Ground Proximity   Warning System)
  • Cockpit weather data-link ( XM Weather )
  • Strict protocols restricting flying in dangerous conditions
Pilots testified that the above measures are not being implemented out of financial considerations and budget constraints.
It appears the FAA needs to urgently address this issue by issuing clear and obligatory directives.

0 Comments

    Archives

    October 2018
    July 2015
    June 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Air Medical Transport
    Ambulance
    Cpr
    Ems
    Gear
    Mass Casualty
    Mci
    Medevac
    Medication
    Military Medicine
    New
    News
    Paramedic
    Paramedics
    Research
    Resuscitation
    Safety
    Sar
    Survival
    Tactical Medicine
    Training
    Trauma

    RSS Feed

Medical Support Consulting