The Ambulance Service of NSW are so impressed with their new Air Ambulance Aircraft that they took one of them on a tour of regional New South Wales last Thursday to show off its tremendous capabilities of transporting patients needing complex heart/lung bypass equipment on route to further treatment at hospital.
The impressive Beechcraft King Air 350, named the Nancy Bird-Walton, landed at Armidale Airport with specialist staff on board to demonstrate the complex life-saving equipment. The aircraft was commissioned last month by Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research, Jillian Skinner, as well as descendants of Australian aviatrix Nancy Bird-Walton, as part of a new 10-year contract with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Under the contract, five new state-of-the-art planes will gradually be brought into service (a second Beechcraft King Air 350 and three new Beechcraft King Air 200s) to replace the current four King Air 200s in the Ambulance fleet. All five planes should be operating by July.
Acting Senior Flight Nurse Lachlan Beattie said the new plane is great news for regional parts of the State because the larger 350 aircraft fly faster, have greater range and a greater payload capacity.
“These planes can carry high acuity patients that require additional medical staff and complex equipment, such as ECMO (extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation machines) and intra-aortic balloon pumps, and can also carry patients weighing up to 250 kilograms,” said Mr Beattie.
ECMO machines continuously pump blood from a patient through a membrane oxygenator, which removes carbon dioxide and adds oxygen, thereby supporting the patient’s heart and lungs, while treatment for underlying illness takes place. Intra-Aortic Ballon Pumps involve a helium-filled balloon inserted into the aorta through the skin to improve blood flow. They are used for severe heart failure; and before and after heart surgery, and other types of severe shock.
“Each flight is crewed by an experienced pilot and triple certificate flight nurse, and all aircraft are installed with the latest safety equipment including infra-red technology to assist with night landings,” said Mr Beattie.
“Last year, Air Ambulance carried more than 5000 patients, flying nearly 2500 missions for 6500 hours from Melbourne to Brisbane and from the Darling River to Lord Howe Island.”
