Halloween - TRICKED! - October 30, 2010

Life Flight has an incredible Search & Rescue service called "The Hoist."  It is used when a patient is located somewhere that it is not possible to land the helicopter nearby and it would cause Search & Rescue to take serious time to extricate the patient. 

The helicopter hovers over the patient and the Paramedic leaves the helicopter and is "hoisted" down to the ground via a long cable.  The Nurse is the Hoist Operator and they communicate via hand signals. 

The Paramedic then stabilizes and prepares the patient for transport.  Either a "seat" (if the patient is not seriously injured and they can sit upright), a "net" (looks like a hammock) or a "bag" (looks like a big, red, person-sized duffle bag). 

The helicopter then lowers the cable back down to the paramedic who hooks up with the seat/net/bag and the the cable. 

The Paramedic and the patient are then hoisted up to the helicopters door frame.  They fly (outside the helicopter) to the command post and are then hoisted back down to the ground. 

The Paramedic unhooks the cable.  The helicopter then lands nearby and the paitent is loaded into the helicopter for the transport to the hospital. 

It's a pretty neat service.  And of course, they have to have training.  I got to be a 'hoist victim' a few years ago, but James never has.  Usually, hoist training is on a weekday - during work hours.  TODAY IS SATURDAY!  So James and I went to hoist training.  The hoist helicopter (left) and another duty helicopter (right) at the parking lot of Little Dell Reservoir.

James is getting a safety helmet placed on him by Paramedic Paris Napoli.

Paramedic Cathy Cooper is doing the training review for Paris (in the helmet and preparing to catch the cable).  James is in the net.  Ready for hoist.  The net is one-size-fits-most.  James is just tall.

Here comes the helicopter over the reservoir.  Past the pick-up site for a visual of the scene.  And back to the parking lot.

And landing without hoisting James.

 And taking off again to go back to the Life Flight hangar for maintenance.  There was some kind of fluctuation in the engine guages on the helicopter.  The pilot (Denny Patterson - who also took our wedding photos) wasn't comfortable with that - since it affects hovering and hovering is important for hoisting and safety is important for surviving.  So he aborted the hoist and aborted hoist training and James was THIS CLOSE to being a "Hoist Victim" for Halloween.

There they go - The far one to the hangar for maintenance, the near one to a scene in Big Cottonwood Canyon for an actual patient.  Good timing.

So SAD to miss hoist training.  So GLAD that James' life was not endangered for training purposes.  So HAPPY to go on a Saturday afternoon drive out to East Canyon Reservoir with James - still a bit of snow on the ground from the last storms.