Multiple Patients With Heatstroke Air Evacuated by Agreement Concerning Collaboration

Abstract

On August 30, 2017, the wet-bulb globe temperature was 30°C. Three female military personnel fell unconscious almost simultaneously around noon after a long-distance march that had started at 6 am. The fire department in Gotenba received a 119 call [at 1:16 PM] and requested dispatch of the eastern Shizuoka doctor helicopter (DH) because it would take about 1 hour from the scene to arrive at our hospital by ground ambulance. At that time, the DH of eastern Shizuoka was transporting an injured patient to Kanagawa Prefecture, so the flight dispatcher of the DH of eastern Shizuoka decided to request support DHs from Kanagawa Prefectures based on an agreement concerning collaboration using the DH. The DH of Kanagawa Prefecture met 1 of the patients and transported her to its base hospital. The remaining 2 patients were then transported by the DH of eastern Shizuoka to its base hospital after completing the previous mission. All patients obtained a survival discharge without major complications after receiving proper treatment and rehabilitation. The agreement concerning collaboration using multiple DHs was important in this case, and dispersion transportation was successfully achieved.