COVER STORY : Holland HEMS

Georgina Hunter-Jones

HELICOPTER LIFE visited Amsterdam where they went on call-outs in the Eurocopter EC135 of Lifeliner 1.

We were sitting in the briefing room when the klaxon sounded. "Follow me!" said Narda Veugelers, pilot of Lifeliner 1, the Amsterdam Emergency Medical Services Helicopter. With me close behind her, she ran up two flights of stairs, through the safety doors and out onto the heli-pad where the EC135 was fuelled up and 'response ready'. She strapped herself in and did her checks, starting the first engine as I strapped myself into the back with the on duty fireman watching alertly. The helicopter has a two minute response time.

Meanwhile back in the briefing room the nurse, Bert Groen, and the doctor, Karine van Scherpenzeel, were getting details of the exact location and type of accident. Then they too hurried to the helicopter, which already had their medical kit strapped inside. Bert climbed into the front, where he helps Narda with the navigation (the nurses do special training courses for this) and told her the general direction, while the doctor climbed into the back, flipped on the radio which allows her to communicate with the trauma centre, and got out the road map, on which she marked the location, before giving the map to Bert so he could...