Two missions at same time for Life Flight's Westpac Rescue Helicopter

21/8/2011 1530 PM

At 1130 this morning Life Flight Trust responded to Paraparaumu for a call to a seriously ill woman While on the ground at Paraparaumu the helicopter was requested for another mission in Moonshine Valley near Upper Hutt.

Life Flight responded to Parapaumu with two Wellington Free Ambulance (WFA) Paramedics on board the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Once at the scene the paramedics performed a procedure known as Rapid Sequence Intubation (RSI) in order to insert a breathing tube down her throat. Once the breathing tube was safely in place a decision was made to transport the woman by road ambulance so that the helicopter could respond to Moonshine Valley.

At Moonshine Valley a 36 year old Stokes Valley man was knocked unconcious when his trail bike lost control and he went down a small bank. The man suffered back, neck and shoulder injuries when he hit a tree at the bottom of the bank.

The injured man was located under very tall trees which made a winch rescue impossible. The WFA Rescue Squad, police, fire and another WFA road crew were able to get to the scene and after getting him up the bank the injured man was transported by 4WD back to the helicopter.

The patient was flown to Wellington Hospital Emergency Department where he is being further assessed and treated for multiple injuries.

"It's unusal for us to be needed at two places at once but it all worked out well in the end" says Dave Greenberg, Westpac Rescue Helicopter Crewman. "First the helicopter got the required WFA paramedics to the seriously ill woman and then went on to the off road incident without much of a delay. Unfortunately the tall trees made a helicopter rescue impossible so it was good that the road crews were able to access the accident scene"

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