In what way is an ambulance helicopter useful and advantageous towards ameliorating the means of help and assistance available to patients? At this question, everyone can find a simple and precise response. It is not a tool that is useful. It is its advantages and its benefits that render it useful in case of an emergency.

Concerning the traditional means of care and assistance in the case of medical urgency, two tools are available. From one side, we have the traditional ambulance, a tool that we need to perceive as a means of providing first-aid care to patients as well as transporting them to the nearest hospital no matter the urgency and the situation that takes place during an intervention. In every ambulance, there are at least two paramedics, trained in the field of providing first-aid care to patients. According to the nature of the urgency, the paramedics can ask for reinforcements from a doctor or for means of specialized care in an urgent case. The other tool available is an intervention vehicle composing of at least a doctor and an emergency nurse. This tool depends directly from the hospital emergency ward. The medical team can intervene and provide a diagnosis to the patient this way defining the adequate steps that need to be followed and whether the transportation towards a hospital is deemed necessary. The transport is effectuated through an ambulance and according to the urgency, the medical team accompanies or not the patient until the hospital.

In a way, an ambulance helicopter consists of a mix of these two means of assistance. Why?

• The primary function of a helicopter is that of acting as an urgent medical service and resuscitation. An ambulance helicopter has two priority objectives: to arrive as quickly as possible at the scene of the accident and at the patient and to run first examinations to determine a diagnosis. The medical team works methodically to reduce, as much as possible, the interval between the moment when the helicopter is requisitioned and the moment the intervention team is in contact with the patient. The helicopter has an indisputable advantage: the rapidity of displacement with a speed of approximately 5km each minute at a straight line.
• The second possible function of an ambulance helicopter is this of the patient’s transportation. Like an ambulance, it can transport the patient to a hospital. It also contains a series of appreciated advantages when someone’s life is in danger. For example, it can guarantee optimal comfort permitting to the patient to benefit from a stable transfer, not submitted to the multiple obstacles of the road circulation. Also, the medical team can provide medical assistance and care without any interruption. The rapidity of the displacement is once more advantage for the patient because it permits the transport of the patient to a hospital as quickly as possible.

The usefulness of an ambulance helicopter can be located within the above-mentioned points. Overall, it can provide the best service and the adequate tools taking into account the interest of each patient.