PHOTO
A South Canterbury-based flight medic has shared her experiences saving lives from the sky.
Last week, Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue flight medic Libbie visited Community House in Timaru to share information about the air rescue service from the perspective of someone working directly in first response.
She said she worked in a dual role while on board a Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
“I’ve been working in this industry for a while, I worked in Taupō for four years and Christchurch for three.
“I’m trained as a paramedic, I’m also a winch operator and help the pilot with aviation navigation.”
They worked in a crew of three, with a pilot and two flight medics, she said.
“One of those flight medics will be my role and the other flight medic will be a critical care paramedic.
“I’ve done my paramedicine degree, for things like intubation and a few other high-level skills.”
She said she wanted to work as a paramedic as a way to give back to the community.
“I was working overseas in a fly-in, fly-out role and when I got back to New Zealand, I felt like I needed to give back to the community.
“I started volunteering on an ambulance and then quickly realised I loved it
“I started studying, and here I am.”
An average day always began with a lot of pre-flight checks, she said.
“Every day the pilots have to do pre-flights of the helicopter.
“We do pre-flights of the winch gear in the back and of all the clinical gear in the back as well.
“That probably takes 45 minutes in the morning to check all of our clinical equipment, the ventilator, the monitor, all of the bags that we carry, make sure that we’ve got all of the equipment that we need.
“Next we get our drugs, which are sign-in, sign-out, pretty highly regulated medications.
“Then after that, we do a whole company Zoom meeting with Greymouth, Nelson, and Christchurch, so we’re all on the same page with anything that’s happening in our areas.”
From January 1 to June 30 this year, Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue has flown 536 missions, with 15% of those taking place in South Canterbury.
Libbie said while it was hard to pick a most memorable rescue mission she had been on, there was a recent one in Akaroa that stood out.
“It was a pretty standard mission, nothing spectacular, but it was landing right at somebody’s house in Akaroa.
“For us, Christchurch to Akaroa is a 12-minute trip, but on the road, it would be an hour and a half at quickest or two hours in an ambulance.
“To be able to land at this patient’s house, load them into the machine within 10 minutes and then get to hospital 12 minutes later, that’s why we’re there, that’s why we do it.
“I don’t know if there’s any memorable job, but those jobs, I’m like, this is why we do the job; this actually made a difference.”
Anyone wishing to learn more about the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue service or to support its work can do so by visiting airrescue.co.nz