The South African Red Cross Air Mercy Service Trust (AMS) provides emergency rescue and air ambulance services to the Western Cape province with its fleet of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. This unusual 56-year-old non-profit, in partnership with the Emergency Medical Services of the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, aims to ensure that all citizens have equitable access to specialized acute care at all levels, including remote rural residents.
The AMS rescue platform, which provides air-sea and air-mountain rescue services via helicopter, has more than 20 years of experience working with the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, Wilderness Search & Rescue (WSAR), Lifesaving South Africa, and other South African governments and organizations.
By developing people skills to help alleviate the current shortage of specialized aero-medical field workers, AMS has successfully trained 24 full-time AMS paramedics as external load operators (ELO). Four of the paramedic ELOs are females, including the private sector's first female rescue ELO.
The stringent ELO training program is focused on safety and efficiency, utilizing international best practices as well as those from the South African Air Force.
The ELO is a crucial member of the helicopter rescue crew, which also consists of the command pilot, rescue paramedic, and technical rescuer or rescue swimmer. They are trained in the operation of the helicopter rescue systems (e.g. cargo hooks, helicopter hoists, etc.), in-flight emergencies, air rescue techniques, confined space landings, and patterning aircraft in mountainous terrains and over the sea.
Some air rescue techniques include:
• Trooping: the helicopter lands on a mountain to position or extract rescuers or patients.
• •
Hoisting: rescuers are inserted and patients extracted using the helicopter- mounted hoist.
Short-haul: a heavier load of up to four rescuers and a patient on a stretcher are lifted off the mountain to safety.
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Nov/Dec 2022
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