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Photo courtesy Boston MedFlight
Boston MedFlight provides potentially life-saving critical care transportation to Outer Cape accident victims. |
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Flying under pressure
Medflight deals with daily danger
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
The stories over the last three weeks have been heartbreaking. Wellfleet resident Caleb Potter severely injured while riding a skateboard. Provincetown Dept. of Public Works employee Mims Sparks killed in a traffic accident. An unknown father and son on a motorcycle smashing into the back of a car on Route 6A.
In all these incidents, as well as two separate eye injuries that occurred on the Outer Cape recently, rescue personnel on the scene called for a medical helicopter to evacuate the patient quickly to a Boston hospital. In each of these cases, however, Boston MedFlight, the critical care transport company most frequently called by Outer Cape rescue personnel, was unable to assist because dangerous storms in the area had grounded the helicopters.
Some friends of Potter’s complained about MedFlight’s unavailability. However, bad weather and high winds are two forces that account for the majority of the times MedFlight can’t respond. The helicopter pilots make the decision as to whether it is safe to fly without knowing the extent of a victim’s injuries.
That’s deliberate, according to MedFlight chief executive officer and medical director Dr. Suzanne Wedel. The pilots’ first concern needs to be for the safety of the medical helicopter team, and knowing the specifics of a particularly wrenching accident victim might interfere with that, she said.
“The pilots never know what they turn down. And that’s the way it should be,” Wedel said, adding, “But I know it’s hard on our communications technicians” who are aware of the specifics and have to inform rescue personnel on the scene that a helicopter is unavailable.
“It is what it is at this point,” said Provincetown Rescue Squad Capt. Tom Roda. “You can’t control the weather. When they’re unavailable due to weather, it’s almost never a surprise to us. We don’t want to put anyone else in danger.”
Danger is what MedFlight personnel attempt to reduce every day. The non-profit organization was formed 22 years ago when six hospitals in the Boston area banded together to purchase a helicopter to bring the technology of an emergency room or intensive care unit to critically ill and injured patients. MedFlight has grown to encompass three medical helicopters, one fixed-wing jet and two critical care ground vehicles. One helicopter is stationed in Plymouth and two in Bedford.
“The goal is to begin to initiate life-saving procedures as soon as possible in the field. If the aircraft in Plymouth is busy, one of the other helicopters will back us up. We’ll always send you the closest available asset,” Wedel said.
Of the 3,000 missions MedFlight accepts each year, approximately 20 percent involve flying directly to an accident scene, while 80 percent involve transporting critically ill patients from one hospital to another. In the year ended July 1, MedFlight received 23 calls for service from Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet and Eastham. Fourteen of those calls were cancelled by the party who requested the service, seven patients were transported, and there were two situations where MedFlight was unable to assist, Wedel said.
The high number of “unable to assist” situations on the Outer Cape occurred after July 1 this year and were concentrated around the July 4th holiday. Dan Silverman, Wellfleet fire chief, who responded to both the Potter and Sparks accidents, said it was ironic that so many accidents occurred recently where a MedFlight helicopter was requested. Usually, Wellfleet rescue personnel call MedFlight two or three times a year, he said.
“We have a lot of respect for what they do. It’s a pretty dangerous business. I just wish they could fly everyday regardless of the weather,” Silverman said.
Wedel said there are times when MedFlight receives multiple calls at the same time, more than the three helicopters can handle. When that occurs, MedFlight will contact other air medical services for back-up, work with a doctor to determine which accident victims may be able to wait and which need priority care, send a fixed-wing airplane if there is an airport near the scene or, if the accident scene is not too far away, send a ground ambulance.
“Sometimes we do have too many calls. Our communications technicians do their best to juggle all the circumstances,” Wedel said.
Some medical officials in Provincetown are interested in working more closely with MedFlight to see if there is a way to ensure more consistent service to the Outer Cape. P.J. Layng, a member of the board of directors of Outer Cape Health Services, said the population on Cape Cod has grown so much that additional medical resources are needed. Serious accident victims need to be transported quickly to level one trauma facilities in Boston, she said, and Cape Cod Hospital, located in Hyannis, does not provide level one trauma care.
“There is a critical nature to being treated in a teaching hospital rather than a community hospital. The difference is literally life and death,” Layng said. “Yes, we are at the end of the earth here. But we’re a 10-minute flight to Boston.”
Henry Tuttle, executive director of Outer Cape Health Services, is scheduled to meet with MedFlight officials at the end of the month, hoping to exchange information on MedFlight’s resources and the need for critical care on the Outer Cape. While OCHS is not an emergency room, Tuttle said, it does receive more acutely ill patients than other facilities.
“We see much more acute, or intensely chronic, ill patients. We try to be responsible to the community need,” he said. “Once we find out more, hopefully it will result in working more closely with them.”
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Jul 19th, 2007