CareFlight crews were again on the weekend, sending fixed wing aircraft to support local community clinics and first responders dealing with three separate major car crashes.
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The first of the car crashes involved eight patients who were travelling in a troopie when it rolled about 20 kilometres from Maningrida on Friday afternoon.
Health professionals from the Maningrida Community Health Centre were first on the scene to triage and provide initial treatment to the occupants of the vehicle.
CareFlight, operating the Top End Medical Retrieval Service on behalf of the Northern Territory Government, tasked a Darwin fixed wing aircraft with flight doctor and flight nurse aboard to the Maningrida airstrip where they worked with the clinic team to bring the most seriously injured patient to Darwin before returning to retrieve and transport two more patients.
The second car crash occurred on Saturday involving a car and a campervan travelling on the Kakadu highway that collided about 50 kilometres south of Cooinda.
Fortunately for the occupants of both vehicles, medical assistance was on the scene quickly. The first responder, a doctor raised the alarm with staff at nearby Jabiru Community Health Centre, who immediately sent clinic staff to assist.
CareFlight sent a fixed wing aircraft with flight doctor and flight nurse to land at nearby at Cooinda Airstrip, where they were met by staff from Cooinda Lodge who transported them to the scene.
Clinic staff and other first responders worked with the CareFlight team to provide care and transport patients back to the waiting aircraft at Cooinda Lodge for transport to Royal Darwin Hospital.
The third car crash involved two vehicles near Peppimenarti late on Saturday night.
Health professionals from the Peppimenarti Community Health Centre were first on the scene. CareFlight dispatched two aircraft with clinical teams to work closely with the clinic staff from Peppimenarti, Palumpa and Wadeye and local police.
The mission was complicated by smoke from bushfires, preventing landing at Peppimenarti, so crews landed at Wadeye with Wadeye clinic staff transporting the teams to Peppimenarti.
These three separate incidents demonstrate how well Top End health teams and first responders work together.
The clinic staff, fire, police and St John Ambulance crews and others first on scene worked together with CareFlight crews and logisticians with focus and professionalism to save lives, prevent long-term injuries and deliver the best possible care for the patients involved in the crashes.
These missions came on top of a tasking of the Top End Rescue Helicopter on Saturday to retrieve a seriously ill man from a cruise ship that was passing the top of the Australian mainland.
CareFlight received the tasking from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) at about 9am Saturday morning about a man who was unwell on a cruise ship.
As his condition was not improving the onboard doctor initially sought telemedical services before making the decision to evacuate the man.
CareFlight tasked the Top End rescue helicopter with flight doctor and flight nurse to make the 400 to 500-kilometre round trip, which was made more complex due to the amount of fuel required to make the trip and complete the challenging hover and winch retrieval as there was no helipad on the ship.
The CareFlight clinical team sent the flight nurse down the wire to assess the patient's condition and determine the logistics for the safe retrieval of the patient into the helicopter. He successfully packaged up the patient and with the assistance of all on board the helicopter, winched him to safety for the flight to Royal Darwin Hospital.
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