dispersing the appropriate resources. Emergency medical services are also responsible for transporting patients from low-level facilities to high-level facilities for specialized treatment. The service also transports patients from high-level facilities to low-level facilities when they no longer need specialized treatment. Emergency medical services (EMS) handles technical rescues, such as disentanglement, water rescue, and seek and rescue. The EMS comprises personnel with basic life support (BLS) and advanced life support (ALS) training.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Air transport continues to attract an increasing number of passengers each year. Currently more than 500 million passengers use air transport each year in the United States. The number of passengers using air transport is predicted to increase to more than one billion in the next decade. Aviation safety tops the list of concerns for the ever-increasing number of passengers. Air travel is unique when compared to other modes of transport because even a relatively minor aviation accident can result in mass causalities (MacDonald, Mottley, & Weinstein, 2002). The unique nature of the crafts used in air transport is to blame. Unlike vehicles and trains, airplanes have a large number of people confined to a small space. The accidents deteriorate in a fast speed and often result in a fire producing black toxic smoke that engulfs the cabin within seconds. Airplane crashes happen at approximately 150 miles per hour and involve approximately 600 people (Cason, Lu & Schreckengast, 2010).
Most of the aviation accidents happen during takeoff or landing. To increase the survival rate during a crash, the EMS must focus on the post-impact survivors. Immediate after the plane crash, the highest risk facing the survivors is a fire outbreak. Those survivors who cannot exit quickly face risk of smoke inhalation (Airport clinic offers variety, challenge, convenience, 2000). Materials used to make the plane and the fuel in the planes engines burn producing highly toxic substances. Compounds, such as cyanide, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen chloride can cause a victim to become unconscious within few seconds. The response time of the port health and fire fighting team is critical. The port health team provides initial medical support until the arrival of the local hospital authorities. To ensure the suppression of the fire, especially in the interior of the aircraft, the response time of the port fire fighting team must be under a minute. The response team includes enough personnel to suppress the fire inside and outside the aircraft (Gregg, 1988).
At the port, the EMS has three important roles. This includes saving as many lives as possible by locating and stabilizing the critically injured, administering first aid to less injured, and transporting the casualties to nearby medical facilities. The personnel and the medical equipment must maintain the capacity to arrive at the accident scene within the shortest time possible (Makino, 2002). The port emergency aspects are integrated with the local community emergency aspects through the mutual aid emergency agreement. On arrival at the accident scene, a medical coordinator assumes control of the medical operations. An interim medical coordinator is appointed if the designated medical coordinator is not within the accident scene (Farley, M., & Heerden, 2007).
Most airports maintain an internal medical and ambulance services. This operates in conjunction with the airport rescue and fire fighting service within the airport. Except military airports, civil airports lack a capacity to respond to an emergency entirely using internal resources. Prearrangements exist between the airport and the public, private, or military medical and ambulance services within the proximity of the airport. This entire arrangement ensures the dispatch of sufficient personnel and medical equipments at the scene of the accident. The preexisting arrangement also covers responses to accidents that happen outside the airport. The travel arrangements of medical equipments and personnel cover land, water, and air transportation (AAMS Staff, 2009).
A medical transportation officer coordinates the efforts of the ambulance services that respond. The officer directs the transportation of casualties to appropriate hospitals that have the capacity to treat the particular injuries. The officer advices hospitals about patients en-route to the hospital and maintain contact with command post. The medical transportation officer also accounts for casualties by recording their name, extent of injury, and the destination hospital facility. Hospital within the vicinity of the airport must have the capacity to mobilize medical teams to the accident scene within the shortest time possible (Classified, 1987). Communication is critical to ensure the success of the EMS. Immediately after the accident, the airport only informs the designated prime medical facility about the accident. The hospital informs other hospitals within the area using the local medical communication network. Communication must also exist between the accident scene, ambulances, and the destination hospitals. The closest hospital to the airport must maintain operation status even when it is necessary for medical teams to the accident scene (Dasgupta et al, 2012).
Conclusion
In the airport, EMS provides acute medical care to causalities of an aviation accident. The EMS role includes stabilization of the casualties at the scene of the accident and their transportation to nearby medical facilities for specialized treatment. To ensure the response to an aviation accident is sufficient, the airport maintains an emergency department or arranges with nearby medical facilities to provide the necessary personnel and equipment during the normal operating hours of the airport.
References
AAMS Staff. (SeptemberOctober 2009). Air Medical Transport Conference 2009. Air Medical Journal. Volume 28, Issue 5. Pages 242-244. ISSN 1067-991X,
Airport clinic offers variety, challenge, convenience. (2000). The Canadian Nurse, 96(10), 12. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/232085250?accountid=458
Cason, B. M., Lu, C., & Schreckengast, S. (2010). Are we secure? surveying FAA FAR 139 class IV general aviation airports. Journal of Transportation Security, 3(2), 87-104.
Classified. (September 1987). Annals of Emergency Medicine. Volume 16, Issue 9, , Page 242, ISSN 0196-0644.
Dasgupta, S., French, S., Williams-Johnson, J., Hutson, R., Hart, N., Wong, M., Crandon, I. (2012). EMS response to an airliner crash. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 27(3), 299-302.
Farley, D. R., M.D., & Heerden, J. v., M.D. (2007). Is there a doctor on board? Contemporary Surgery, 63(10), 478-478,480.
Gregg A. Pane. (January 1988). Toxic smoke inhalation and aircraft fires, The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Volume 6, Issue 1. Page 82. ISSN 0735-6757.
MacDonald, R. D., Mottley, J. L., & Weinstein, C. (2002). Impact of prompt defibrillation on cardiac arrest at a major international airport. Prehospital Emergency Care, 6(1), 1.
Makino, T. (2002). International Airport and Emergency Medical Care. Journal of Nippon Medical School, 69(2), 185-191.
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