Flight Nursing

Tragedy struck the emergency medical community in Southeast Texas when a PHI Air Medical helicopter crashed around 2:45 a.m. Sunday, killing all four on board, including a nurse who was well-known in Conroe and throughout the area.

The aircraft, identified as Air Med 12 and based at Coulter Field in Bryan, was transporting a patient from a Huntsville hospital to the Texas Medical Center in Houston when it went down on the Gene Campbell Ranch in the Sam Houston National Forest, according to PHI Program Director Jonathan Collier.

Among the victims was Jana Bishop, who was a part of emergency medical care as a flight nurse/paramedic with PHI and an emergency room nurse at Conroe Regional Medical Center. She previously worked as a medic for the Montgomery County Hospital District. Bishop died one day before her 29th birthday.

Also killed were pilot Wayne Kirby, 63, of Bryan and flight paramedic Stephanie Waters, 27, of Cedar Park.

Walker County Chief Deputy Butch Davis identified the patient as David Disman.

Davis said the PHI Air Medical helicopter crew was taking Disman, 58, from Huntsville Memorial Hospital to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston at the time of the crash for surgery. He had no information on Disman’s hometown.

A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter discovered the wreckage six hours after the crash. DPS Trooper John Sampa said the wreckage was not burned, but the aircraft “totally disintegrated.”

Read full article at Montgomery County Courier

Video of announcement from Texas DPS

Flight Web Condolence Book

When a patient is on pressure support ventilation, it is most important to assess and monitor __________.

• A.  Peak inspiratory pressure
• B.  Peak end-expiratory pressure
• C.  Minute volume
• D.  FiO2

Air Trek co-founder Dana Carr admitted his company did not keep up on its paperwork… but maintained the air ambulance service, based in Punta Gorda, followed safety guidelines and flew a properly-maintained fleet.

He also stressed the FAA had not questioned the safety of Air Trek’s planes. That runs counter to the FAA suspension notice, however… the first line of which says agency officials “determined that an emergency exists related to safety in air commerce.” Carr has filed an appeal to lift the suspension.

Read Full Article at Aero-News Network

According to scanner reports, a medic and a nurse sustained minor injuries in the crash. The pilot was reportedly uninjured.

Firefighters at the scene had to block air intakes to deactivate the helicopter after the crash.

Developing article may be read at RepublicanHerald.Com

AP Video Footage about the Crash

Helicopter Crashes at Michigan Hospital, Passengers Escape Before FIre Breaks Out

Your patient has a 60% lesion of the left anterior descending artery.  During transport you have the ability to monitor the EKG in two different leads.  Which of the following choices would be most appropriate for this patient?

• A.  Marriott Lead with a 3-lead configuration
• B.  Lead v1 in a 5-lead configuration
• C.  Lead II with a 3-lead configuration
• D. Lead v5 in a 5-lead configuration

Answer and rationale can be read in the comments section.

The court reinstated Maj. Margaret Witt’s lawsuit challenging her dismissal from the Air Force under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. While the ruling does not strike down the policy, it strikes a blow to its future application and bodes well for more equitable treatment of gays in the military.

The policy allows gays and lesbians to serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation private and do not engage in homosexual acts. The rationale given for the policy, and one usually upheld by the courts, has been that accepting openly gay and lesbian service members would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermine the cohesion of combat units.

Witt, a decorated flight nurse who cared for injured patients on military flights and in hospitals, most recently supported troops in Afghanistan. For six years, she lived with a civilian woman in Spokane, Wash., about 250 miles from her base, and kept the relationship private. After an anonymous tip to the Air Force about the relationship, she was suspended without pay and honorably discharged in 2007 after 18 years of service, two years shy of qualifying for retirement benefits.

Witt said of the historic ruling: “I am thrilled by the court’s recognition that I can’t be discharged without proving that I was harmful to morale. I am proud of my career and want to continue doing my job. Wounded people never asked me about my sexual orientation. They were just glad to see me there.”

Read full article at The Houston Chronicle

Russian Emergency Ministry’s aerial ambulance stationed in the Chinese Sichuan province hit by an earthquake has provided help to 97 patients in China, said Alexander Ivanyus, the Ambulance’s director and deputy chief of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Tsentrospas squadron.

“At 9 a.m. on Friday morning, there are 21 in-patients in our hospital, three of them are being treated in intensive care,” Ivanyus told journalists by a video link from China.

Read full article at RedOrbit.com

Report in PDF format

Preliminary Synopsis

An intra-aortic balloon should deflate _____.

• A.  atrial kick
• B.  ventricular filling
• C.  between the dicrotic notch
• D.  during systole

Answer and rationale can be viewed in the comments section of this page.