Team committed to saving lives

12:33pm Friday 5th December 2008

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CASUALTIES injured in road and trauma-related accidents are patients the County Air Ambulance crew in Strensham is dedicated to providing urgent medical care for.

Made up of a pilot and two paramedics, the committed crew are up at the crack of dawn to start their 12-hour shift at 7am.

Their first task of the morning is getting the helicopter, which costs £1.8 million a year to run, prepared and taken out of the hangar.

The publicly-funded charity, which has two other helicopters in Shropshire and Staffordshire, is required to fund raise £5.6 million a year to keep the helicopters in the air.

The pilot, whose job it is to get to the scene of the incident, look after the aircraft and prepare to receive a patient, carries out a pre-flight inspection while paramedics check their equipment.

“The first thing we do is get the aircraft prepared, look at the weather and fill the aircraft with fuel,” pilot, Mike Kent, told the Shuttle/Times & News.

“We then call our control at 7.30am and say we’re fully ready to go.”

Within seconds of receiving a call, which can sometimes take hours, the team prepare to fly.

Before getting into the helicopter, the paramedics look at the map to get a general idea of where the patient is while the pilot gets the aircraft started.

Vicki Brown has been a paramedic with the County Air Ambulance for more than two years. She said: “We all work as a team. When we’re flying, one of the paramedics is co-pilot, helping with the navigation to get to the scene.

“If we’re not happy about something someone will say and we will sort it out before we go on the aircraft.”

The 36-year-old added: “Sometimes we get to the scene first, so we then have to do an initial scene assessment.

“We find out if we need any more resources and work with the patient and maybe take them to a hospital a land ambulance wouldn’t be able to.”

She explained that the pilot is “brilliant” on scene, helping with the fetching and carrying, communicating with control and alerting the hospital.

”It comes down to patient care, “ she said. “We know we can get to the scene of an accident and give the best treatment we can.”

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