Posted on 09/30/2020 9:54:05 AM PDT by BenLurkin
If given the green light by ambulance service chiefs, the paramedic powered by lightweight jet-packs would flit across treacherous terrain within minutes to reach stranded casualties.
In an awe-inspiring test flight, the inventor Richard Browning, looking distinctly like Marvel’s Iron Man, put the suit through its paces on the Langdale Pikes.
Browning could be seen shooting across the grassy knolls at heights of between 3 and 6 metres (10 to 20ft) in search of a party of walkers simulating a casualty scenario. Within minutes the woman and young girl had been located in a search that would normally have taken rescuers more than an hour on foot.
The 41-year-old said the 1050bhp suit, which retails at £340,000 and has a top speed in excess of 80mph, is technically capable of reaching an altitude of 12,000ft, although for safety purposes it is flown lower.
It uses two micro jet engines similar to those used on aircraft on each arm and one on the back allowing for movement to be controlled.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
ambulance chasing lawyers will get them too
Agreed. Only in the most contrived of scenarios can you come up with something a jet pack paramedic could do that a "regular" paramedic and helicopter crew couldn't do.
As a plus, the helicopter option also means a basket and the ability to extract the vicim(s). As another plus, when not in use for paramedic / rescue missions there are a number of other reasonable things a helicopter could be used for. To me the jet pack looks like a toy looking for an excuse to exist - other than it is obviously a heck of a lot of fun to fly around with.
Mark
KMG 365.
That cartoon is way after my time.
Keep in mind that the idea of a paramedic is to stabilize trauma and provide very high level first aid. The writer implied that the pack is more a search and rescue device. Instead imagine you fall on a trail 5 miles from a crossing. Your leg is broken with an open fracture and the bone protruding, or maybe you had a heart attack. Your hiking partners are competent in wilderness First aid but you need more than they can offer.
One partner takes note of your injuries and runs the five miles to the trailhead and is able to make a call from there. (Remote trails often don’t have coverage)
The search and rescue team arrives and you are able to give them an approximate location. A paramedic straps up on the jet pack and is able to travel the five miles in 10 minutes while the rest of the extraction team gears up with a stretcher and other gear and begins to hike. At 3 miles an hour, it takes 90 minutes for the hiking partner to get to the trailhead, 30 minutes for search team to arrive, 75 minutes to hike to the accident site then treatment may begin.
With a jetpack, the response time is cut by at least 70 minutes. The paramedic stabilizes you and you’re ready for the 90 minute stretcher ride out courtesy of the SAR team.
This makes perfect sense to me.
FYI, I’m a backpacker and Wilderness First Aid certified.
You’re able to get a call out
I figured it’d be something like that. But I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head of an increasing number of stranded victims and recue workers piling up on some remote mountaintop where a helicopter can’t land.
Murphy’s Law.
The jet pack only makes sense if the cost of the jet pack is much much lower than the cost of a helicopter, enough lower that they could be widely deployed.
What would make MORE sense, though, would be quad-copter drones. Cheap, able to search wide areas and provide video back to base. Add some robotic arms and a first aid kit, and they could perform first aid without needing a human.
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