Our new EC155 helicopters 1

Transcription

1 August 2012 University of Michigan Health System Survival Flight Our new EC155 helicopters 1

2 American Eurocopter 155 B and beyond Bell

3 EC ft Bell ft 6.9 ft 11.3 ft 13.1 ft 50.1 ft 44.1 ft 1.2 ft The front view (right) shows the EC155 s much larger cabin, while the profile view reveals the safer, enclosed tail rotor. Note the additional windows in the EC155 cockpit. 8.3 ft The Bell 430 has landing skids, while the EC155 has retractable wheels. 3

4 EC155 Bell 430 Fenestron tail rotor High ground clearance High efficiency Low vulnerability Low noise and vibration levels Safer ground operations Exposed seesaw tail rotor Lower ground clearance Higher risk of damage Noisier Increased danger to ground personnel 4

5 A side-by-side comparison of the EC155 and Bell 430 Weight: EC155 B430 Maximum take-off weight (pounds) 10,846 9,300 Basic aircraft empty weight (pounds) 5,772 5,731 Capacity: Cabin volume (cubic feet) Maximum crew (pilots + nurses) 6 4 Maximum patients 2 1 Performance Max cruise speed (knots) (MPH) Max range (nautical miles) (miles) Min operating limit (degrees F) Max operating limit (degrees F) Warm-up time (minutes)

6 Maximum range with crew and 300-pound patient. Bell 430 EC155 6

7 EC155 Technology and Materials 7

8 More shots of our new aircraft 8

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10 EC155 Cockpit 10

11 Survival Flight program facts and statistics 11

12 Survival Flight was founded in It was the first medical flight service in Michigan. In the past 29 years, four different types of helicopters have been used: Eurocopter AS355 Twinstar ( ) Bell 230 ( ) Bell 430 ( ) Eurocopter 155 B1 (2012 and beyond) Along with the three helicopters, Survival Flight also has a fixedwing plane, a Citation Encore, which can pick up donated organs or patients anywhere in the country. The plane was used to bring patients from Haiti to the U.S. for advanced specialized care after the 2010 earthquake. 12

13 The Survival Flight team includes: 21 flight nurses 11 helicopter pilots and 8 fixed-wing pilots 6 mechanics for both types of aircraft 10 communications specialists, who monitor five radios, eight telephone lines and track flights by satellite GPS Additional support staff, administrators and medical faculty Since its founding, Survival Flight has flown about 4.5 million miles. That s like flying to the moon 19 times. In a typical year, Survival Flight makes between 1,000 and 1,500 trips, transporting 800 to 1,000 patients and bringing numerous hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and other organs to waiting recipients. 13

14 Proud to represent U-M 14

15 But don t take our word for it Robert Doyen s left arm tells a story. It s a story of pain, progress and gratitude. Doyen proudly displays a tattoo depicting a Survival Flight Bell 430 helicopter and below it the words Thank you all below it. He says the image represents his appreciation to the U-M Health System after he spent six weeks there recovering from a spinal cord injury. Survival Flight is a big part of why I m still here today, he says. When I was in the hospital, I couldn t believe how much everyone cared about my recovery. I wanted to say thank you to U-M somehow, so when I was still in the hospital, I decided to get a tattoo of the helicopter. One Saturday in June 2011, Doyen woke up with the same pain in his shoulder that had troubled him for weeks. On this morning, the pain was worse than it had been, and he decided to go to the local emergency room in Bay City, Mich. He underwent an MRI, and when coming out from the machine, his arms erupted in pain. They felt like they were on fire, he recalls. That s the last thing he remembers until he woke up in the intensive care unit at U-M s University Hospital two days later. In between, Doyen had been flown to U-M. His C5 and C6 vertebrae had collapsed, pinching his spinal cord, and forcing him to undergo a cervical fusion surgery. He woke up Monday unable to walk, and facing a month and a half of rehabilitation. When they first put me in the wheelchair, I thought my life was over, he says. But he wouldn t need the wheelchair for long. After six week of rehabilitation, he left the hospital under his own power. Although his recovery isn t over, Doyen says his new tattoo is a continual reminder of his appreciation for U-M. I could have gotten a block M tattoo, but I didn t want people to think I was just a Michigan sports fan, he says. The Survival Flight tattoo shows how thankful I am to the hospital, and what everyone there did for me. 15

16 Learn more: Survival Flight homepage - Survival Flight Facebook page Pentastar Aviation s medical transport page American Eurocopter s EC155 page UMHS Colleagues in Care newsletter article Medicine at Michigan magazine article (2010) 16

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