Helimed 53

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Today I took the bike to the airport to do a site visit of the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, whew! Better known as WNAA or by their call sign of Helimed 53.
Everyone was extremely nice and accommodating to my silly questions. This helicopter runs with one pilot, a paramedic, and a doctor. Having the doctor is "really handy" as they can do all sorts of crazy things in the field including thoracostomy (chest tube), thoracotomy (chest 'cracking'), surgical airways, clamp bleeds, amputations, RSI, etc. They average about five "jobs" a day, but like many medivacs, get canceled quite a lot.
All medivac helicopters in the UK are funded entirely on private and corporate donations. This really boggles my mind, as where I work, the helicopter is funded through billing, and where I live, it is funded through taxes.
Throughout the year, all of the medivacs have fundraisers and PR activites to raise awareness. In fact, some busses in Coventry have a WNAA ad on them. All this is pretty amazing to me as they cost millions of pounds a year to run, just in maintenance. Well done citizens of the UK!
The helicopters are staffed by NHS employees and members of the military. When the aircraft is grounded, the crew go out on a fly car to bring the doctor to the scene.
I had a nice chat with the crew that was on, and a cool tour thanks to the pilot.
Luckily, I beat most of the rain on the ride home, and about five minutes after I left, I heard them flying overhead, off to another job.
Unfortunately due to strict air laws, I can't do a fly along. But I do sense some time on the doctor fly car in my future. Until then, support your local air ambulance!

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