Sombeech
11-27-2011, 03:38 PM
So I made out with a mountain bike trail this week in San Tan Mountain Regional Park in Arizona http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthread.php?61364-Oh-Dang!-Beech-is-in-Hospital-MTB-Crash (http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthread.php?61364-Oh-Dang%21-Beech-is-in-Hospital-MTB-Crash)
Not only am I glad I was able to refuse the life flight - medical air transport service, but now I'm really scratching my head as to why they wanted to push that on me so hard.
My symptoms? Concussion, but my eyes were not dilated. Just some temporary memory loss, I knew who I was and where I was by the time the EMTs arrived. I had some superficial scrapes on my hands and shoulder, I was having completely coherent conversation but the time they had arrived. I was sitting up.
Take a look at the map, I had mytracks logging the route. The placemark on the left is the trailhead, and very close to where the crash was. Then you can see the route to the hospital and google calculates it to be 7 miles away. I can remember the ride in the ambulance and I know it was only a few minutes.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201568912690721470257.0004b27bef0450996e8a 5&msa=0&ll=33.197328,-111.604958&spn=0.078717,0.154324
The pickup point at my crash site was VERY accessible for the sheriff truck and ambulance which is seen from my video, in fact it's a double track dirt road so there's no need for going off trail to reach me.
I heard the EMT say he should get the helicopter en route and fortunately I was fully coherent and asked if I had the right to refuse that. He was taken back a bit (and I could hear the disappointment in his reaction) as he said "well technically yes you have the right to refuse but I don't suggest it". So I responded with "then I'm not flying in a helicopter to the hospital. I'm not in any life threatening danger, in fact I don't even want to be taken in an ambulance."
Well I compromised and ended up going in the weeoooo weeoooo mobile.
But seriously folks, why in the world are they trying to push the helicopter ride on me? I can understand if it's been a while and they need a training exercise but I can guarandamntee I would get the "training rate" when I got the helicopter bill.
Is it for financial gain? Panic? Maybe they didn't feel comfortable with handling me themselves? What if a real emergency would have occurred at the same time? They'd have to say "sorry, we're taking a dude with a concussion and a scrape on his hand"
Not only am I glad I was able to refuse the life flight - medical air transport service, but now I'm really scratching my head as to why they wanted to push that on me so hard.
My symptoms? Concussion, but my eyes were not dilated. Just some temporary memory loss, I knew who I was and where I was by the time the EMTs arrived. I had some superficial scrapes on my hands and shoulder, I was having completely coherent conversation but the time they had arrived. I was sitting up.
Take a look at the map, I had mytracks logging the route. The placemark on the left is the trailhead, and very close to where the crash was. Then you can see the route to the hospital and google calculates it to be 7 miles away. I can remember the ride in the ambulance and I know it was only a few minutes.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201568912690721470257.0004b27bef0450996e8a 5&msa=0&ll=33.197328,-111.604958&spn=0.078717,0.154324
The pickup point at my crash site was VERY accessible for the sheriff truck and ambulance which is seen from my video, in fact it's a double track dirt road so there's no need for going off trail to reach me.
I heard the EMT say he should get the helicopter en route and fortunately I was fully coherent and asked if I had the right to refuse that. He was taken back a bit (and I could hear the disappointment in his reaction) as he said "well technically yes you have the right to refuse but I don't suggest it". So I responded with "then I'm not flying in a helicopter to the hospital. I'm not in any life threatening danger, in fact I don't even want to be taken in an ambulance."
Well I compromised and ended up going in the weeoooo weeoooo mobile.
But seriously folks, why in the world are they trying to push the helicopter ride on me? I can understand if it's been a while and they need a training exercise but I can guarandamntee I would get the "training rate" when I got the helicopter bill.
Is it for financial gain? Panic? Maybe they didn't feel comfortable with handling me themselves? What if a real emergency would have occurred at the same time? They'd have to say "sorry, we're taking a dude with a concussion and a scrape on his hand"