A little LifeFlight action this afternoon

[Matthew]

Got home today just in time to see the fire engine, ambulance, police, and other emergency vehicles pull into the grade-school pretty much right across the street from my house.

A couple minutes later, the LifeFlight helicopter circled overhead to land.

I went inside to grab my handheld, but couldn't find the freq they were using.

News report says:

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An air ambulance Thursday afternoon flew a 7-year-old girl to a hospital after she suffered a head injury at an Olathe elementary school.

The first-grader was unconscious about 4 p.m. after she fell during gym class.
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The last time I saw a LifeFlight right over my house, it turned out a friend of my daughter had gotten kicked by a horse. That was a bad week, they turned the machines off about 3 days later.

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I didn't have time to look it up - does LifeFlight or other Air Ambulance services have their own frequency? I tried the local tower(s), and 121.5, but didn't hear anything.
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[Steve]

Often they are using UHF for contact with the hospital and law enforcement, but they should be on regular VHF talking to tower/ctaf or approach if there's a class D or C nearby.

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I didn't have time to look it up - does LifeFlight or other Air Ambulance services have their own frequency? I tried the local tower(s), and 121.5, but didn't hear anything.
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[Matthew]

We are right in the overlap between two D airports about 7NM apart. I tried fligp-flopping between both, but maybe I just didn't listen long enough.

 

[PilotAlan]

I didn't have time to look it up - does LifeFlight or other Air Ambulance services have their own frequency? I tried the local tower(s), and 121.5, but didn't hear anything.

If they are in controlled airspace, they'll be talking to the appropriate agency. If in decent radar coverage, they may be using flight following (but in most places they fly too low).

For landing, they'll be talking to locals setting up the LZ on whatever frequency is designated for that. Freq in use is determined by what the locals have. Many emergency services choppers have multiband radios and can talk on VHF-Low, VHF-High, UHF, 800mhz simplex, 800 analog trunked, and 800 digital trunked (depending on what's in use in the normal response areas).
It's never an FAA airband freq, because the locals don't have that.

 

[Matthew]

If they are in controlled airspace, they'll be talking to the appropriate agency. If in decent radar coverage, they may be using flight following (but in most places they fly too low).

For landing, they'll be talking to locals setting up the LZ on whatever frequency is designated for that. Freq in use is determined by what the locals have. Many emergency services choppers have multiband radios and can talk on VHF-Low, VHF-High, UHF, 800mhz simplex, 800 analog trunked, and 800 digital trunked (depending on what's in use in the normal response areas).
It's never an FAA airband freq, because the locals don't have that.

My guess - I heard the helicopter, and figured it was our traffic/news chopper that is based at the airport closest to me. By the time I was able to see it and notice it was an air ambulance, he was already starting to circle in prep for a landing. That's when I grabbed the handheld - by then he was probably switched over the the LE freq and I wouldn't have heard him anyway.

 

[Doggtyred]

In my region, Hermann Hospital's life flight now operates on 800 mhz trunk (STAR Net??) that was originally started by Harris County and has now grown to encompass the entire region. Most air to air and air to ground ops occur on the 800 trunk.

The pilot does talk to ATC on local freqs, usually the dedicated Class B Helicopter freq in town, and local towers when transiting the class D's..

They do have a dedicated "company" channel on aviation band but its rarely used, except by non-company traffic desiring to land at the med center heliport.

The aircraft have full UHF/VHF fire/police band comms using wulfsburg radios.. in addition to the aviation and motorola trunk radios..

 

[Everskyward]

I didn't have time to look it up - does LifeFlight or other Air Ambulance services have their own frequency?

The program I was affiliated with did. They had their own ARINC frequency where both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft could call in to the com center. When it was necessary to talk to ATC we monitored both.

 

[PilotAlan]

The program I was affiliated with did. They had their own ARINC frequency where both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft could call in to the com center. When it was necessary to talk to ATC we monitored both.

Ditto. Aeromed at Tampa General using (then) BK-117s, we had a VHF (public safety, not air band) freq with repeater sites so we could communicate back and forth to the comm center at the hospital.

 

[DeeG]

I know that out here, if they need to talk to LE or fire, they use a freq called LERN. Its a statewide freq, so if neighboring agencies are assisting each other, its one that everyone has and can use. I think the hospital/EMS one is called HEAR.

 

[Matthew]

Latest new this moring is that she ran into another kid at an after-school activity, fell backward, smacked her head on the floor of the gym, and was unconcious for some amount of time. Taken to the ER at a children's hospital by helicopter to avoid the rush-hour traffic. Seems like she's OK, except for a nasty headache.

 

[DeeG]

Good to hear that she's going to be fine.

(parents, OTOH, may have a stroke when they get the bill for that ride.......)

 

[Matthew]

Good to hear that she's going to be fine.

I hope so - I haven't heard who it was, so I don't know if I know the family. There was very little info in the paper.

(parents, OTOH, may have a stroke when they get the bill for that ride.......)

Yeah, it'll be an eye-opener. I hope they have good insurance.

I've known two people personally who got a ride like that. One survived, but still has lead pellets in him. In both those cases I don't think anyone was too concerned about the sticker shock.

I never thought about it that way. Is something like that billed to the patient? I don't know where the line is drawn on who gets billed for what on an emergency response.

 

[Doggtyred]

I don't know where the line is drawn on who gets billed for what on an emergency response.

Always the patient.

If they have insurance, it gets billed. If its an MVA or industrial accident, the vehicle insurance or employers policy may eventually get the bill, and trust me, most programs like this have people in the office who tackle this sort of reimbursement stuff for a living..

As for appropriateness.. I have yet to see anything that would indicate this was appropriate use of resources. A positive loss of consciousness, now resolved, with or without amnesia and NO OTHER FINDINGS has a very low probability of being a traumatic cranial bleed. Putting her in a helo to beat crosstown traffic to essentially get a cat scan of the head she could have gotten at ANY suburban or semi rural ER is a waste of jet fuel and engine time.. Had she had an altered/decreased mental status or some other physiological change, then hell yea,,, fly her.. twice even..

Not to mention, the risk of dying in an aeromedical crash is much higher than that of ground transportation. EMS freaked out and over-reacted.. EMS training is bare bones, geared toward major trauma, and spring loaded to presume worst case scenario.. it takes years to develop the assessment skills and see the caseload from which to base these sort of judgment calls on.. Too many medics (and nurses too) dont make the distinction between having a high index of suspicion based on mechanism of injury.... versus taking action based on actual physiological change.

 

[Matthew]

Always the patient.

If they have insurance, it gets billed. If its an MVA or industrial accident, the vehicle insurance or employers policy may eventually get the bill, and trust me, most programs like this have people in the office who tackle this sort of reimbursement stuff for a living..

As for appropriateness.. I have yet to see anything that would indicate this was appropriate use of resources. A positive loss of consciousness, now resolved, with or without amnesia and NO OTHER FINDINGS has a very low probability of being a traumatic cranial bleed. Putting her in a helo to beat crosstown traffic to essentially get a cat scan of the head she could have gotten at ANY suburban or semi rural ER is a waste of jet fuel and engine time.. Had she had an altered/decreased mental status or some other physiological change, then hell yea,,, fly her.. twice even..

Not to mention, the risk of dying in an aeromedical crash is much higher than that of ground transportation. EMS freaked out and over-reacted.. EMS training is bare bones, geared toward major trauma, and spring loaded to presume worst case scenario.. it takes years to develop the assessment skills and see the caseload from which to base these sort of judgment calls on.. Too many medics (and nurses too) dont make the distinction between having a high index of suspicion based on mechanism of injury.... versus taking action based on actual physiological change.

But - we have a cool helicopter and we need to use it!