Janice R. Andrews
In STANFORD, California It was 2:00 p.m. when the call came in. Sunday: A motorist needed to be transported as quickly as possible to a different hospital due to a brain damage sustained in a collision. Douglas Evans, the lead helicopter pilot, noticed that Redding, California, had a temperature of 116.6 degrees, which required him to land. It was probably even scorching on the tarmac. Evans had been flying medical helicopters over California for 27 years, and until now, he had never had to cancel a flight due to extreme heat.
Too hot to take off.
Evans and other emergency responder pilots are accustomed to making flying judgments while taking into account the wind, fog, and fire smoke of California. However, high heat is making it more difficult for rescue aircraft to perform their duties, much like the current fierce wave that is engulfing the West. In large portions of the state, activities are changing as a result of rising temperatures brought on by climate change caused by humans.
According to Vicky Spediacci, the chief operating officer of REACH Air Medical Services, which has 30 helicopter sites throughout California, the extreme heat caused the business to turn down at least two rescue requests over the weekend. This is really uncommon. While pockets may exist, this was more common, the speaker stated. In hot weather, the firm occasionally reroutes to land at an airport, where there are less difficulties, rather than at the scene. Flying in a small space can necessitate using greater engine power, which becomes more difficult during hot weather, according to 40-year pilot Spediacci.
In the region’s national parks, where helicopters are necessary to navigate the immense wilderness, the heat is making it more difficult to transport patients and carry out rescue operations. Helicopters are occasionally dispatched to find and rescue hikers who become lost or trapped on isolated trails. Park rangers in national parks like Death Valley and Joshua Tree caution visitors that in hot weather, a helicopter might not be able to reach strenuous hikers.
Medical helicopters frequently cannot fly when temperatures exceed 122 degrees, which has already happened this year in some areas of California, including Death Valley. This past weekend, the heat prevented a helicopter from reaching a rescue in Death Valley, according to officials. They were six bikers riding through the park together. According to officials, four people received on-site treatment before being discharged, one person died from heat exposure, and one more was “treated for severe heat illness” and taken to a hospital.
A news statement stated that it was 128 degrees that day and that “due to the high temperatures, emergency medical flight helicopters were unable to respond, as they generally cannot fly safely over 120 degrees.” The deceased was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Death Valley Park Ranger Nichole Andler, who made this statement in an interview on Tuesday. Because it was too hot outside, the helicopter that the Rangers had summoned to tend to the seriously injured person turned it down, she added. According to her, the injured party was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Pahrump, Nevada, and then to Las Vegas. It is uncertain what condition they are in.
Andler stated to The Washington Post earlier this month that during the summer months, the park receives one to three requests each month for air ambulances to transport patients to medical facilities. Occasionally, ambulances are used to transport patients to cooler, higher altitudes where a helicopter can land and take off more safely. “It gets harder to help out as the temperatures rise more frequently,” Andler stated.
Helicopter rescues can occur three to five times a year in Joshua Tree, a Southern California national park renowned for its striking desert vistas, according to park ranger Anna Marini. All weekend, the park had temperatures that peaked beyond 110 degrees. A few weeks prior, according to Marini, a hiker experiencing heat exhaustion off route in the middle of the afternoon prompted the park to dispatch a helicopter. The terrain was sufficiently cool for a helicopter rescue, yet it wasn’t flat or simple to reach by car. However, she noted that such rescues might not be feasible in hotter weather.
According to Marini, “the helicopters are under a lot more stress in intense heat.” It might have an impact on how we operate. Heat causes the air to become thin, which reduces the amount of air that helicopter blades can grip. Their capacity to take off and maneuver is impacted by that. The onboard systems may overheat and malfunction. Pilots must modify their weight, gear, and route planning, or they might have to say no to flying entirely.
Evans, who oversees the medical helicopter response program at Stanford University Hospital and works for Stanford Life Flight, was aware that there was a chance the helicopter’s computers, radio, and engine would break when he examined the weather on Sunday. We’re going to need to pay more attention to it from now on, Evans stated. “It seems like things are getting warmer, and I anticipate things getting worse,” he stated.
According to Stanford Life Flight’s program manager, Michael Baulch, the team in Redding decided it was cool enough to transfer the patient at approximately 5:30 p.m. After originally declining the call because of the heat. They reached Stanford by about eight o’clock at night, but he claimed they had wasted valuable time waiting for lower temperatures. According to Baulch, the patient’s condition had stabilized by Tuesday.
Stanford’s Airbus EC-145 is ready for numerous missions. It can transport neonates between different facilities; it can transport patients to state-wide operating rooms during heart surgery while their chests are open; it can fly through rush-hour traffic and reach the site of an accident before an ambulance does. “We can’t lift as much weight when it’s this hot,” Baulch remarked. “We have to leave either people or gear behind.”
The forty-year-old unit performs over 480 medical transports annually, reaching as far east as Reno, Nevada, and as far south as Santa Barbara. Reactions to 911 emergency calls account for about thirty percent of those. Nestled deep under the Stanford hospital’s basement, a control center manned by approximately six staff members and featuring a minimum of twenty displays is constantly in motion, responding to calls and requests for medical air assistance. Control radios the pilot in response to a call, inquiring as to whether the weather is suitable for flying. “To prevent any prejudices, we won’t disclose to the pilot the specifics of the case,” stated Baulch.
The on-duty pilot and nurses zip up their heavy, fireproof fly suits and board the helicopter if the flight is allowed. The Stanford squad was getting hot under the Santa Cruz Mountains on a plane. Though it was in the nineties, the crew had left the helicopter out in the sun to instruct park rangers and local firefighters on how to support the crew in a rescue. According to pilot Evans, the engine was running as hot as it could be without risk.
The crew’s arms and legs were hidden by the heavy, maroon costumes. On a cloudless Saturday, the sun blazed through the cockpit window and faint streams of air emerged from the air conditioning ducts. The five-minute flight was short, but as the crew landed, they took off their layers and went for the frozen snacks and cold water bottles they keep on base. They are capable of two-hour trips. According to flight nurse Kent Cramer, “you basically just sit there and roast,” while he gulped down a lime-green ice pop.
Kevin Thus, a second nurse wheeled out a large turquoise device that the staff jokingly refers to as “the snork.” A pipe connected to the box allows cold air to be blasted into the cockpit when the aircraft is parked on the tarmac. Evans will occasionally take the chopper to higher altitudes in order to cool it down, but doing so frequently results in less oxygen to a patient who is already in trouble. Temperatures above the 122-degree limit have an impact on the team’s performance. We can only operate on the ground for fifteen minutes above 104, according to Evans.
Evans has known since childhood that he wanted to be a pilot. He began by flying small aircraft, but he claims he soon discovered that being able to fly among the trees, move sideways and backward, and hover is more enjoyable. It just makes his work more fulfilling that he flies to rescue lives. Obstacle-filled missions are his favorites, such as landing on bridges or beaches or piloting a helicopter across a metropolis. However, he was unprepared for the heat, which he believes will make his work more difficult if he had to decline additional flights.
Saying no is the hardest part of the job, he claimed.
