Well done Rescue 116

Rescue117

Well done to the crew of Dublin based Rescue 116 who performed a lifesaving transplant mission to London this morning. No doubt, unusual to see an Irish S61 at Heathrow airport. Hopefully things go well for patient. Press release below.

http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=335

ivabiggon

how come the air corp where not used, i thought they had an agreement for a 24/7 air ambulance?

sdanseo

Response time perhaps? Usually they'd use the CASAs which could have been over the Aran Islands at the time. Plus if the organ came from a hospital with a helipad it's a lot quicker than getting it to Dublin Airport.

McWotever

I'd say it's to do with the time of day. It was 2am. I'd imagine the Air Corps wouldn't have flight crew on base at that time of the morning. Presumably they have a standby arrangement with a designated crew, but what kind of times are involved? I've signed up to the Air Corps Facebook page and most of there Air Ambulance missions seem to take place during the day, or at least the first sector (original call) does.

The CG have a retained/standby crew at night. I think they have a turnout time of something like 45mins at night. However, it says in the press release that there was a crew briefing within 10minutes, which is an amazing time frame.

The time in which an organ can stay viable varies, and can be incredibly short. So regardless of who undertook the mission, it seems it was mission successful. Another well needed positive story for the Emergency Services, in the words of Barrack Obama - Is Feider Linn!

Klunk001

sdonn wrote: »

Response time perhaps? Usually they'd use the CASAs which could have been over the Aran Islands at the time. Plus if the organ came from a hospital with a helipad it's a lot quicker than getting it to Dublin Airport.

According to R-116 Facebook page the patient was flown from Dublin airport to Heathrow, then on to Kings Hospital for an organ transport.

Klunk001

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0528/1224297951028.html

ivabiggon

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/air-ambulance-given-clearance-for-hse-takeoff-1311604.html

i just thought the air corp was the people to do it

Torpedo

Air Corps would be first choice, suspect not avail then Coast Guard heli requested. This happens every now and again.