A patient transport is the process of moving a patient to and from one location to another often involving hospitals, treatment facilities, or home care. These transports are done through ambulance services. When a patient is transferred over a long distance, typically state to state or over 350 miles, under constant medical supervision it is called a long-range air medical transport. Such transports utilize an air ambulance that can get them to their location safely, comfortably, and quickly. A long-range air ambulance is a medically equipped aircraft that is professionally staffed with licensed medical crew to care for the patient during the transport.
Many people don’t know about air ambulance services until they need it. There are many reasons why someone would require long-range air medical transport, let us share with you the top 5 reasons we’ve witnessed while working in the industry.
Reason #1 – Patient becomes critically ill or injured during a trip and needs to get home
Many people do not expect to get injured or become ill during a vacation, but it does happen often. It should be noted it is probably a good idea to get travel insurance when traveling to ensure these kinds of unexpected costs will be covered and you can rest easy that you have help to get you home quickly and safely if needed.
Case: An elderly woman went sailing down the west coast from northern California to Mexico. After arriving in Mexico, she started to have pain in her chest and shortness of breath. She saw multiple physicians who told her she was probably just stressed and needed to take it easy. She went back to her boat and tried to wait it out. Instead of recovering, her condition progressively became worse. Her spouse took her to a local hospital where she was found to be in complete heart failure and needed aggressive treatment which included intubation, placement on a ventilator and multiple iv medications. Our crew was able to pick her up from the Mexican hospital and take her to a hospital in California for rapid cardiac intervention and care. Her healing process took months with her entire family by her side.
Reason #2 – A patient is no longer able to recover at their current hospital and needs to move to another hospital for further specialty care
Often patients are at a hospital that can no longer help them medically, they are not qualified to fulfill a certain treatment or cannot receive surgery at that location. Therefore, the patient will need to be moved to another hospital that can care for them. Because they are not able to fly commercial with their medical condition, they are transported in an air ambulance under the constant care of a medical crew.
Case: A Canadian citizen was vacationing in Mexico when she had a horrible fall, fracturing her hip. Orthopedic surgical intervention was not present at the hospital in Mexico. Due to her being a Canadian citizen, her health plan required her to be transported to Canada to receive the needed surgery. AirCARE1 was able to get her back to her home country to a specialized facility. During the flight she was provided medical attention to manage her pain. Once in Canada surgery was performed and she made a complete recovery and is back traveling again.
Reason #3 – A premature baby is born out of state/country and needs to be transported to the NICU near home
Expecting mothers often travel before their new arrival comes not anticipating they would deliver the baby before their due date. It happens, and when it does you are not able to just fly the baby back home on a commercial flight. Premature babies require specialty care in the NICU and may need to continue with that care while being transported home when that time comes.
Case: An expecting mother of 24 weeks was visiting family in New Mexico when she went into preterm labor. The family and baby stayed in New Mexico while the baby received necessary medical attention in the hospital NICU. It was months before the baby was approved to travel back home to New York. With the baby still being tiny and needing medical care during travels they called AirCARE1 to utilize the neonate equipment and specialty care of the neonate transport team onboard our Air Ambulance aircraft. The baby was transported safely cross-country to finally be home.
Reason #4 – A patient is being transferred to receive hospice care or has been receiving hospice care and has requested to live out their days near family or a location of their choice.
If a hospice patient wants to live out their remaining days in another location of their choosing, they should be allowed to do so if the option is available. Hospice patients need special medical attention as they travel typically to ensure their comfort in terms of administering medication and pain management. Therefore, they’ll need a hospice air transport vs. a commercial flight for their travels.
Case: An elderly man was living in a nursing home but wanted to live out his days in the cabin that he built in the mountains. His family was extremely supportive and made this happen. The AirCARE1 medical crew went bedside to bedside ensuring that the patient was comfortable and settled. They picked him up at the medical facility he was at, rode to the airport in a ground ambulance, managed care during the flight, and rode with him in the ground ambulance to his cabin deep in the mountains. They tucked him in his bed and left him surrounded by his loving family.
Reason #5 – Provide safe transport for a patient with mental health challenges that needs to be moved from one behavioral health facility to another for either long-term or specialty care
Traveling via private Air Ambulance is a wise choice and often the only option to ensure the safety and medical well-being of patients with mental health and behavioral disorders. Sometimes a commercial flight is not possible as these patients may cause a premature/emergency landing or need medical attention to make it through the duration of the long distance air ambulance flight. Read more about transporting patients with mental health or behavioral disorders here.
Case: A young man traveled to Mexico with his girlfriend. Once in Mexico they parted ways through a series of very unfortunate events leading to the young man being alone in Mexico without his medications and wanting to take his life. His father was able to locate and fly directly to the patient while his mother stayed in the United States to secure medical transport with us as well as placement at a facility specializing in his direct mental health needs. Upon our crew’s arrival to the patient, he required sedation prior to the transport. After the sedation, our crew was able to transport him and his father to the facility that was located near the entire family back in the United States.
Any kind of medical transport for any reason is an unfortunate event and not ideal for the family and their loved one. We do not believe in taking advantage of these circumstances for our gains. AirCARE1 was built to provide good quality service at a fair price. We provide medical care with compassion and a holistic approach to promote healing during transports and truly make a difference in our patient’s lives.
