Many of us have seen people being evacuated on television by dropping down a scoop stretcher suspended in air and carried away for emergency medical services during natural calamities. This creates the impression that air medical transport is only for extraordinary situations. The reality is that medical air ambulance usage can be attributed to general situations involving patient transfers from hospital to home or organ transfer to situations demanding emergency medical services.
The existence and the need for medical air ambulances services hasn’t penetrated much into the masses as it needs to be. Also, if people are aware of air ambulance services, there are a few myths surrounding the operability of air ambulances, which we, through this blog, intend to turn upside down.
Common Myths and facts:
Myth: Air ambulance is only for calamities
Fact: Although air medical transportation is used as a response to a calamity; however, this is not always the case. The truth is that air ambulance service providers’ move seriously ill or injured patients from one point to another. Perhaps the only problem is that we don’t hear this message as often as we should. Nowadays, those who have a severe illness or injury have access to an air ambulance.
Patients or their families may still need air medical transportation even if the situation is not urgent. In cases where there is no time pressure, air ambulance travelling with medical personnel can offer many advantages in terms of comfort and cost. However, the air ambulance also carries the organs, which is very important to save lives. If life depends on an organ being available on time, air transportation is the mode of choice. Air Ambulance services can be arranged in advance and provide solutions for people who may not be able to travel by regular transportation.
While ICATT Air ambulance service is known as a medical emergency care service, ICATT often uses special flights with perfusionists equipped with intra aortic balloon pumps, neonatal nurses and doctors, and other specialized nurses. Also, ICATT medical air ambulance can transport high-risk or active obstetrician doctors and have access to maternal-fetal treatment during transport. Each flight is operated by highly qualified medical personnel with years of experience in emergency medicine and intensive care.
MYTH: The Air ambulance does not perform CPR and does not transport patients with cardiac arrest.
Fact: ICATT Air ambulance transports patients suffering or have had suffered a cardiac attack. For such patients, CPR can be done very effectively during transport. We cater our services to all patients, irrespective of their health condition. All resuscitation measures are carried out in the air ambulance any time a patient is in cardiac arrest.
Myth: Air ambulances are dangerous and place unnecessary risk to patients as there are no safety measures/parameters in place.
Fact: ICATT air ambulance service’s commitment to patient safety and security is paramount. Our eventless transfer of patients throughout the years and our customer testimonials corroborate this. ICATT Air ambulance meets all national security standards set by the “Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)” and “The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS)”. All aircrafts are equipped with a redundant system, i.e., two engines, two hydraulic systems, two electric systems, two radios, two GPS systems, and more. If one system fails, another exists to ensure the safety and reliability of all functions. Also, we take care of airlifting the patient.
Myth: Transportation by air ambulance is too expensive.
Fact: Price is one of the important factors in selecting air ambulance services, be it in India or overseas. They may not be as high as many people think. The air ambulance cost of repatriation depends on several factors,
- The patient’s condition
- The number and experience level of the required medical team
- Distance.
These are just a few.
The best way to get an idea about this is to ask our agent through our website or contact us and discuss your situation with one of our medical coordinators. You can contact ICATT emergency medical services 24/7 by phone, 9701111156 emails, direct chat, or message via WhatsApp.
Myth: Air Ambulance does not have qualified staff:
Fact: We offer one of the best medical team members, including doctors, paramedics, nurses. They all have extensive experience in the field of medical evacuation. Qualified medical professionals and proper medical equipment are essential to successful repatriation. Especially in urgent cases, patients require careful monitoring, continued treatment during the journey, or even intensive care. A trained doctor and a nurse should be present to respond to any changes in the patient’s condition, and they are available at the site of the medical emergency. In situations like these, an air ambulance is the safest and quickest way to bring a patient home. However, depending on the distance, medical repatriation by road ambulance can be possible.
We always have experts and fast-acting medical team members. Everything is approved, high quality, and many years of professional experience. For this reason, they evacuated patients safely to their destinations.
Myth: Medical air ambulance will not provide medical assistance during transportation.
Fact: Our quality medical team is carefully selected to meet the specific needs of your situation, ensuring high-quality care and ongoing care even during transportation. We only use high-quality medical equipment, and our air ambulances have intensive care units with life-saving technology for every medical emergency. We can continue treatment at the hospital with all diagnosis and respond to changes in the patient’s condition. Sometimes if required, minor surgeries are also performed. We have found that it is not uncommon for patients to improve during travel, especially when the standard of care received previously is lower than desired.
If you have questions about our services or want to discuss your situation to find out what possibilities exist, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are ready to help you all the time.
Myth: Air ambulance does not have ICU:
Fact: Basically, an air ambulance is a private aircraft or a specially modified helicopter to provide medical care during transportation. ICATT uses a high-quality private jet network throughout India, each with its intensive care unit and equipped with the latest equipment and life-saving technology. They provide more room for patients to rest and the medical team to care for patients to carry minor procedures (if required).
The ICATT care team carries a variety of medicines and equipment in its intensive care unit. This team provides specialized equipment from supplemental oxygen to modern medical equipment for patients with complex medical needs. In hospitals, equipment, medicines, and training of crew members are comparable to intensive care units or emergency rooms. Packed red blood cells (3 units), thawed plasma (3 units), complete blood (2 units), and platelets (1 unit) are available in each flight. Each ICATT ambulance has a portable laboratory analyzer that measures gases for arterial or venous blood, electrolytes, haemoglobin, lactate, and international standard values (INR). We also have:
- Basic Life Support (BLS): The basic steps of life support are mainly the monitoring and maintenance of the patient’s vital functions during emergency medical transportation. The availability and use of medical devices is very minimal.
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS): We have special medical devices and specially trained personnel who can use modern medical devices with appropriate medical protocols.
- Trauma management and transportation: This includes the care and transportation of patients with trauma in the Golden Hour.
Myth: Air ambulances are not available round the clock during emergency
Fact: Our air ambulances reach in time for picking up patients, as scheduled. We honour and understand the importance of the golden hour. We are available 24×7 to answer your calls and schedule an air ambulance as per your requirement.
Myth: Air ambulance caters its services to only metropolitan cities and tier-1 cities
Fact: As elaborated earlier, we at ICATT Medical Air Ambulance Services do not discriminate between the needs of people living in cities vis-a-vis people living in rural areas. We send our air medical transport to the remotest of the places, pan India. This includes areas surrounded by mountains. Our ambulances do not demand overlong runways or vast helipads. All that is needed is 50X50 feet of land for our medical air ambulance to land.
Myth: Family members are not allowed to travel by the patient in a medical air ambulance
Fact: This is not true. Our medical air ambulance has enough space to allow one of the patient’s relatives to accompany during the travel, as is the case with the traditional road ambulance. This helps the paramedics to record history, familial history, habits, health condition of the patient.
Conclusion:
Many myths surrounding Air ambulance services, is probably the main reason behind their lack of popularity as traditional road ambulances. However, if one weighs in the benefits air medical transport offers, the possibility of air medical emergency services may completely overrun the traditional ambulance services. Facilities, such as ICU and paramedics staff, to monitor patients’ health make air ambulance services a more lucrative and comfortable mode of transporting patients.
If you want us to discuss your situation to book an air ambulance and tell you about your options, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 9701111156.
