Medical Chopper Crash

[Salvatore]

I give you guys alot of credit for doing these missions. When we were waiting for our sons heart down at CHOP for 7.5 months in 1998 we would get nervous everytime we saw or heard a chopper flying in to land on the roof pad. You never know if its another trajedy or a life saving mission. ALL you guys/gals are heros to me. Thank you!

[Ngtflyr]

Looks like the Tucson aircraft just came out of maintenance. Almost a given it will turn out to be maintenance related, NTBS report will be a year or so down the road.

On a related note, Tues nite I flew a fellow who didn't use jack stands. He was working under a van, the jack collapsed for whatever reason. He ended up with a broken pelvis and internal injuries, a $20K or so bill for the flight and whatever the rest of the medical bills add up too. Plus he has a long road to recovery ahead of him. Almost everyone on this site ends up under a jacked up car, please take the extra time to put in those jackstands as an added precaution. Better safe than sorry. This job sure makes me take a second look at whatever I am doing. It's easy enough to get hurt without doing something stupid. Be careful out there, you don't want to ride with me. For some reason almost all of my passengers don't seem to enjoy the ride.

[Bill Pritchard]

Glad to hear you're OK Dave...I immediately thought of you when I heard the "breaking news" on the TV yesterday afternoon.

Speaking of the floor jack incident, I learned my lesson early in my adult life. I used to occasionally get under a car which was supported only by a raised floor jack. Then one day when I was jacking a car up to do an oil change, the car came crashing down when a weld broke on the floor jack and it failed. That was the last time I got under a car without stands supporting it!

[SS427]

"This job sure makes me take a second look at whatever I am doing."

The last 4 out of 5 fatal accidents I worked on were caused by cell phones and/or lap tops. I have completely changed my tune regarding driving and talking on the phone let alone texting.

[Schonyenko2]

Rick, you guys have to make it more realistic. We never get anybody as lite as Annie. Seems they all weigh 350+. (big smile)

[SS427]

The MediVac flight nurse said their patient weight limit was around 350 pounds. I would LOVE to see them get a 350 lbd'r in there!!!! It was tight for Ann with what I thought was literally NO room left over. As far as getting a more realistic patient, Ann was the only volunteer as they really mess you up with makeup. All for a good cause.

[Xplantdad]

Annie is going to kill you for posting that picture...then YOU will get a ride in the copter...

Holly was in one of those the day she was transplanted [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]