Yeah, a multi-million dollar lawsuit after stupid pilot behavior tends to make your insurance company tell you no on letting non-employees ride along.
CareFlite here in DFW allows 3rd riders, so long as they meet the height/weight requirements.
Also, be prepared to get dumped off on-scene or at the hospital if they need to lose some weight to get safely airborne.
Okay, thanks! I justed to make sure it wasn't unheard of before I start calling and asking companies.
No one in Indiana allows it that I'm aware of unless they are interviewing you as a potential flight paramedic and you aren't there yet. That said, the only HEMS operator in the state I would even
consider flying with is Clarian Lifeline and that was their policy last time I heard anyone talk about it. You could not pay me to even set foot in an Air Evac Lifeteam helicopter. I value my life too much to every consider going up with the operator with the worst safety record given its fleet size of
any commercial helicopter operator still in the air today, HEMS or otherwise. Even then, their helicopters are so underpowered that they have a hard enough time getting off the ground with a fat patient and their own paid crew, let alone an observer, especially on hot days.
There was a reason my EMS medical director made it a policy to consider it an immediate termination offense and Class A protocol violation (meaning he would go after your credentials for unprofessional conduct; never had to do so...people took him at his word and didn't test him) to even call for an AEL helicopter because of the risk associated with their involvement in a call under his jurisdiction. As he put it, "If they (AEL administration) want blood on their hands, go for it. It won't be on mine or those of anyone who works under me. That I will see to."
I'm not currently a flight paramedic student
You mean a "paramedic student". I don't believe there is a formal training program for "flight paramedic" outside of those given by a company once someone in hired. I know there's one for flight nurses, but have not heard of anything for flight paramedics. Normally getting hired takes several years of experience at a high-volume ground ALS service, the alphabet soup of certifications (ACLS, PALS, AMLS, etc) usually at the instructor level, a college degree (a lot of my friends who work for
reputable HEMS operators say you are well served to have at least a bachelors degree), etc to even get your foot in the door. Having additional credentials (nursing, RT, etc) does not hurt.
And I REALLY like aviation!
So do I...that's why I do aviation safety research. As someone who has flown both fixed-wing and helicopter medical transfers, it's something I want to help with to protect my colleagues and friends.
Snce you are doing this to check it out as a possible career, keep in mind you're talking about a career path that involves a 40-some (46% if memory serves me) chance of being involved in an accident that results in the death or serious injury of yourself or someone else on board over the course of a twenty year period...assuming you can handle the stress, noise (kiss your tone-based hearing goodbye), deaths of friends and colleagues, low pay, long hours, etc of the job to last that long. It's not fun and games: the bulls**t that you hear about ground ambulance services still goes on, only it's amplified because if they tell the pilot "fly or you're fired" (they won't admit to it for legal reasons, but it happens quite frequently both directly and indirectly) and you take off into weather you have no business being up in the chances of you living through it are not good.
It's not a "gee-whiz guys, what a cool thing", "Get in da chopper" sort of thing. Contrary to what you hear from aeromedical services (especially the for-profit ones) there is no evidence HEMS makes any difference in outcomes for patients, especially those flown directly from scenes, unless you are otherwise facing a prolonged (>90 minutes in most cases) ground transport. Calling for the helicopter actually DELAYS getting the patient to the hospital in most cases. So ask yourself-and think about this long and hard: am I willing to die to no make a difference for a patient? Am I willing to put my parents/girlfriend/wife through the grief of outliving me so I can have a "cool job"? These are not things the average 18-22 year old (taking a guess on your age since I recall you being a college student), let alone with the risk taking tendencies that leads to an interest in EMS in the first place, ask themselves or even have cross their minds. Just remember, it's not a game, it's not an adventure: it's a deadly serious occupation. Ask Steve Bunker, Dell Waugh, Sandra Pearson, James Taylor, Jana Bishop, Michael Sanchez or Darren Bean how much of a "get in da chopper" sort of world HEMS is. Oh wait...you can't because they are all the friends I lost
in one year to HEMS crashes. The full toll for that year (not counting several patients killed as well) according to the National EMS Memorial was:
1-Steve Bunker
2-Dell Waugh
3-Sandy Pearson
4-James Taylor
5-Jana Bishop
6-Michael Sanchez
7-Darren Bean
8-Ronald Battiato
9-William Mann
10-Bruce Harrolle
11-Mickey Lippy
12-Tonya Mallard (a ground EMT killed while riding along with Maryland State Police hauling two patients with MINOR injuries from a MVA; both patients were walking around talking on their cell phones before the helicopter showed up).
13-Roger Warren
14-Wade Weston
15-Tom Caldwell
16-Tom Clausing
17-Patrick Graham
18-Shawn Shreeve
19-Wayne Kirby
20-Stephanie Waters
21-Mark Coyne
22-Steve Lipperer
23-Robert Goss
24-Raul Garcia
Being a flight paramedic on a medical helicopter usually ranks at the top of "most dangerous occupations" right behind commercial loggers and Bering Sea fisherman. In 2008 being a flight paramedic/nurse was the deadliest job in America. Someone should do a show "Deadliest Medically Unnecessary Transports"....
Sorry if that all seemed a little heavy-handed. I just want you to have a honest and (more importantly)
fact-based view of what you think you want to get yourself into. In closing, if you really want to fly, do it on a fixed-wing service. You will be much safer and your life insurance premiums will be a lot less as a result. If you want to talk about doing ride-alongs with a fixed wing service, send me a PM and I will see about getting permission to do so with the operation I work with. It's non-emergent critical care transfers but it would give you good experience as to what medical care in the air is like.
