air ambulance

We’re all pretty familiar with a traditional ambulance and what it’s used for, we can imagine what type emergency, and lifesaving equipment it carries to help sick or injured patients. Well, what about an Air Ambulance? Are you familiar with these unique intensive care units in the sky?

When patients need medical transport on the ground you typically arrange this service by using an ambulance. What happens though when a patient needs to be transported a long distance domestically or even internationally?

Or what if the ill or injured person can’t travel by land because he has to be constantly monitored or needs to be on a stretcher? The person obviously can’t be flown on a commercial flight. This is where the Air Ambulance can play a vital role.

Air Ambulances are specially designed airplanes to transport critically ill, sick or injured people. These planes can come in a variety of sizes and configurations, from small prop planes and helicopters to larger business jets like Learjets, Cessnas, Gulfstreams and others.

These planes get reconfigured from their typical interiors to accommodate patients for flight.

They typically are equipped with a medical stretcher, medical monitoring devices and life saving drugs. Depending on the size of the planes, there may be room for a family member to fly along with the patient and flight crew.

Air Ambulance companies and brokers arrange air ambulance medical transfer flights. Air Ambulace companies own their fleet of planes, where brokers find you an appropriate plane from a list. The difference between the two is huge.

Essentially, the companies that own planes are very familiar with their planes because they maintain them mechanically to ensure safety. Brokers on the other hand are simply leasing a plane from someone else and may or may not be familiar with its history and maintenance.

Air Ambulances also have trained medical personnel on them that fly with the patient. These are generally flight nurses, flight paramedics or sometimes doctors. They accompany the patient to monitor vitals, administer drugs and provide comfort during the transfer.

Air Ambulances and their staff play an important role in our communities by transporting ill patients to locations around the country and the world when there is no other means of transportation, they can be often be the difference between life and death.

You can find reputable, licensed and insured Air Ambulances by doing an internet search, contacting your local embassy when traveling, or speaking with your local medical facility.