1. Describe your experience visiting the LifeFlight Helipad and Flight Control.
2. Did the video you watched add to the value of the experience for you?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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This blog is written by Vanderbilt Young Scholars Medical Program students to share their thoughts and experiences during their three week immersion into the Life of Vanderbilt Medical Center. We hope you enjoy reading about the program, its students and the Medical Center. Vanderbilt does not edit this blog. Bloggers are solely responsible for content.
12 comments:
For me, understanding what first-responders do was eye-opening. I often don't fully visualize the accident that caused the injury, so seeing the LifeFlight EMTs act in concert was really amazing. These people are the ones who pick an individual off the ground--the black asphalt in a secluded county sometimes. The video definitely added a personal dynamic to many faceless stories.
Viewing the helicopter control center revealed an amount of dedication and responsibility that deserves much credit. The men and women who coordinate this life-saving rescue service are almost always left behind the scenes. I have the highest amount of respect for these individuals who give people like Ulysses a second chance at life.
I really enjoyed seeing the helipad and imagining the helicopters landing and the rush to get the patient to the ER. I also didn't exactly realize that the first responders would perform surgeries at the sight of the injury or in the helicopter. Of course this would be necessary in many cases, but I just never imagined those procedures being performed in places outside hospitals.
Visiting the helipad was a little scary for me, but I thought it was really fascinating to see. I think that what all of the people involved in the LifeFlight process do is overlooked by most of us; I never realized that they really are the first ones responsible for making sure a patient lives. The video increased my respect for those who work with LifeFlight by showing the amount of pressure--caused by limited space and time--placed on their shoulders.
watching the video made the experience more "real" for me. i oftentimes forget that these accidents are indeed reality, and that patients' lives are dependent first and foremost on the performance and dedication of the lifeflight teams.
I think the video was an important preface to the actual tour. After watching something, the tour of an empty landing pad became a place to visualize the miracles that happen. To me, this was probably the part I enjoyed most today, and I hope to have an opportunity to see it first hand.
I have always known about LifeFlight and emergency response teams, but I have never truly thought about and appreciated the great amount of dedication and drive it would take to successfully complete such a high-intensity job. The testing of their skills and response techniques is constant, and they truly have the ability to change the course of someone's life everyday (which the video effectively conveyed).
The opportunity for me to get an insiders perspective on the whole span of events that occur sequentially after news of the accident was really impressive and extensive compared to my original ideas of standard protocol. I was impressed with the organization and number of people that it takes to run the system properly and without major flaw or accident. The amount of knowledge and specific expertise that each member of the team adds to the situation is so impressive and exciting to me as each person uses their specific skills to help save lives every day. The video really gave a good perspective on the application of what was explained to us in a real, live emergency situation and the number of lives that are saved because of this awesome program.
Seeing the helipad was really fun and standing over the edge of the building made the experience seem more life-like in that, I wasn’t just looking around the helipad, I was experiencing what the LifeFlight crew experienced on a day to day basis. I felt that the video that we saw definitely made the idea of ‘heli-ambulances’ more of a personal thing to me. Before, I would see them fly around and I would never think twice about who was inside or what was happening to them, but now I know.
By viewing the lifeflight video before we reached the helipad and meeting some of the EMTs, I felt we were really able to visualize the intensity of the events occurring in emergency medicine. We were able to understand the delivery process from the trauma site and then step out on the helipad and imagine the rushing of patients from the helicopter to the hospital.
It was interesting to see the surrounding city from so high up, and also be reminded that this entire area that I was looking at it is under the care range of LifeFlight.
The video added a sense of realism to the job that Lifeflight has to do everyday and it brought their importance closer to home.
I wasn't there for this part of the program, unfortunately, so I am unable to talk about the visit or the video.
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