In a total of 40,738 missions, the crews of the 35 helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) bases in Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein as well as the ambulance flight operations were alerted to provide immediate, highly professional medical assistance to seriously ill or injured people. After all: when a life is at stake, every minute counts.
With 40,738 missions in total, the fleet of the DRF Group made another crucial contribution to emergency medical care last year. Accordingly, the air rescuers managed to reach the high level of the previous year with an average of 111 alarms per day. The emergency crews were particularly frequently called to provide medical care for severe issues with the heart such as heart attacks or neurological incidents. In addition, patients involved in accidents also needed the immediate assistance of the air rescuers, who are able to reach rescue sites within a radius of 60 kilometers within 15 minutes of flight. Most of the accident victims treated were injured in traffic accidents or falls.
“Our credo is to continually improve our work for the benefit of our patients. That is why we pushed ahead with our fleet expansion last year: in addition to three ultra-modern helicopters of the types H135 and H145, we also put a new Lear 35 A ambulance jet into operation,” said Dr. Krystian Pracz, chairman of the executive board at DRF Luftrettung. “Many of our HEMS bases will celebrate anniversaries next year, which also shows that we have enjoyed great trust at many locations for years and have become an indispensable element of fast emergency care, both locally and nationwide.”
At night, the DRF Group is an important building block of the rescue system as well, providing 24/7 life-saving operations at 13 of its HEMS bases. This makes it the European leader when it comes to night-time air rescue operations, with the most flying hours in the dark. Last year, a total of 22 percent of the deployments at these HEMS bases took place during the night hours.
