the ravennaboy 12 hours agoTwo key points emerged from this article that should lead us all to question whether "the children's lives" were the primary consideration:
1. Dr. Eric Cooper, an employee doctor at Providence, is also the head of Snohomish EMS who made the decision to reject the air ambulances and send the kids to Providence, which was close, but not a LEVEL 1 Facility. He had a self-interest in getting the victims to "his hospital", and he has refused to comment on why he rejected the air ambulances.
2. The Air Ambulance service was managed by UW Medicine, who also manages Harborview, so they had a vested interest in transporting kids to Harborview. They had a vested interest in getting the victims to Harborview.
It is clear that the decision were made based on something other than getting the best possible care for the victims, since Harborview was the superior hospital, and the helicopters were the best chance to move the victims to ANY HOSPITAL.
Too bad that this will most likely be covered up, and no one will be accountable for poor decision making that may have led to death.
“Too bad that this will most likely be covered up, and no one will be accountable for poor decision making that may have led to death.”
Most people have no idea what goes into making these decisions. Shame on them for speaking from a position of pure ignorance.
Both of your posts make sense.
The difference between a level 1 and 2 trauma hospital is primarily that the level 1 has teaching ability.
For us, if we call air ambulance, it will take 10 minutes for a helicopter to arrive, IF they tell us the truth about it. Sometimes they do. They will also transport to their base hospital almost exclusively regardless of where the best destination is for patient care.
Then there is issues of weather, setting up LZ, transferring patient care, flight time, unload time on the other end, getting patient downstairs to the ED, and another patient hand-off.
Every time an patient is handed-off you risk losing information.
I lost a good friend due to air evac not passing on obvious information THEY WERE TOLD that NO DOUBT would have saved his life.
We can “load and go” and be at the level 1 hospital in 12-15 minutes on the ground.
We go months and perhaps years without flying anyone.